BIOGRAPHY OF NAPOLEON, RICHLY EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED WITH MULTIPLE AUTOGRAPH LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS SIGNED BY IMPORTANT FIGURES OF THE TIME—INCLUDING AN 1800 LETTER TO THE MINISTER OF WAR BY NAPOLEON AS FIRST CONSUL OF THE REPUBLIC SIGNED "BONAPARTE" AND AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED BY WELLINGTON—AS WELL AS NUMEROUS ENGRAVED PORTRAITS AND VIEWS AND A BROADSIDE NOTICE CELEBRATING THE WATERLOO VICTORY
(NAPOLEON) WATSON, Thomas E. Napoleon. A Sketch of His Life, Character, Struggles, and Achievements. New York: Macmillan, 1902. One volume expanded to two. Octavo, period-style full green morocco gilt, front covers with gilt vignette portrait of Napoleon, raised bands, top edges gilt.
First edition of this biography of Napoleon, splendidly extra-illustrated and expanded to two volumes with the insertion of 100 signed letters, signed documents, and engraved portraits of the important figures of the era, featuring an 1800 letter by Napoleon to the Minister of War boldly signed "Bonaparte" and an 1836 autograph letter signed by Wellington, handsomely bound.
This copy of Thomas Watson's biography—originally issued in one volume with 12 illustrations—has here been expanded to two volumes with the insertion of over 100 additional signed letters, signed documents and engraved portraits and views. Twenty of the inserted items are signed letters or documents, including an 1800 letter signed by Napoleon as First Consul of the Republic to the Minister of War, an autograph letter signed by the Duke of Wellington, official Imperial documents, and so on. The other 80 inserted illustrations include many finely engraved portraits, mostly contemporary, of Napoleon, his family, and contemporaries, many in proof state, some impressions on India paper and others on Japan paper, as well as views and battle scenes. Five examples of assignats, or paper currency issued during the French Revolution.
This set includes an interesting broadside notice celebrating the Waterloo Victory from September 3, 1815; a commission of Lieutenant in the English Navy from 1799; a printed agreement of enlistment for service at St. Helena for five years, by William Traby as a soldier of the East India Country; memorandum and orders issued on Republique Française letterhead; original French assignats issued in the Revolutionary period, etc. There are also autograph letters signed by Sidney Smith; Henry Wellesley (Wellington's brother); Minister of the Interior Benezech; Minister of Justice Andre Joseph Abrial; an autograph note signed by Talma, the famous French tragedian (one of Napoleon's closest personal friends); a document signed by Admiral Bruix (defeated by Nelson at Trafalgar); a letter signed by Richard C. Anderson, U.S. Consul to France in 1796; and a manuscript account of Peter Cavalliere, written in English, telling how he was taken prisoner by the French when returning from the east.
Among the prints are a proof on India of Napoleon before all letters, and 75 portraits of Napoleon, his family and his contemporaries, including General and Madame Nurat, Josephine, Lucien Bonaparte, Joseph Bonaparte, Jerome Bonaparte, Queen Louisa, Necker, Rouget de Lisle, Charlotte Corday, Louis-Antoine de Saint-Just, Robespierre, Fouché, Delambre, Santerre, Desmoulins, Madame de Staël, Petion, Tallien, Caulaincourt, MacDonald, Voltaire, Blucher, the Duke of Weymar, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, and many others.
Interiors clean and fine, tipped-in autograph material in excellent condition. An beautifully bound, richly extra-illustrated copy.