This beautiful late 1800’s edition of Livre de Mariage approuve par M.L’Archeveque de Tours was a popular Catholic French Book of Marriage - it features a collection of prayers, instructions on the duties of marriage, the liturgy of the wedding mass and the place of a Christian woman. The book is bound in full leather with beautiful blind stamped decoration in gilt to the boards and spine. There are five raised bands to the spine. The text block edges are all gilt, in both gold and silver, and feature beautiful gauffered detailing. Gauffering describes the act of applying a patterned decoration to the text block edges of a book.
It's in near fine condition, with very slight bowing to the boards and a tiny area of surface damage to the back. There’s a very small hole in the leather near the bottom of the front joint.
Inside, there is a tear to the verso of the front free endpaper but no writings or descriptions. There are a few religious images tucked loosely inside. Some of the pages show tanning (most noticeably the plates and tissue guards) but the rest of the pages are clean and bright. The text pages have illustrative borders. There is occasional foxing.
The book does have a presentation box but this is in poor condition. The silk lining is discoloured and stained and the box is very worn, with sides coming loose
Dimensions approximately 15cm x 10cm.
The book will arrive hand wrapped in bubble wrap, patterned wallpaper and ribbon.
I use a range of eco friendly, 100% recyclable jiffy bags and boxes, and whenever possible I use brown paper tape. The green bubble wrap is oxo-degradable and the clear bubble wrap is 100% recyclable. I also reuse boxes when I feel it's appropriate (if the boxes are sturdy enough).