Les Trois Mousquetaires par Alexandre Dumas. Bruxelles. Meline, Cans et Compagnie. 1844.
FIRST EDITION of The Three Musketeers. An incredibly scarce Brussels first edition preceding the Paris edition. Published in 5 volumes, here bound into two volumes.
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The Brussels (and Paris) first editions of The Three Musketeers are renowned for their rarity. There are only two first editions held institutionally worldwide of any of the Brussels editions, and only two of the Paris editions. Only two copies have come to auction within the last 50 years. The later Paris edition sold at Christie’s in 2017 for $60,000 USD.
There were 4 editions published in Brussels prior to the Paris edition, all in 1844. There is no generally accepted order to the Brussels editions, but the Brussels-Leipzig edition is generally considered to be the last of the four printed. This Meline Brussels edition is the first to preserve Dumas’ original text including the complete chapter Le Bonhomme Broussel, and all Brussels editions are incredibly scarce.
Condition:
Title, [1-276], title, [1-303], title, [1-268], blank. Vol 2: title, [1-262], title, [1-293], blank.
12mo, marbled boards over half calf, worn. Some shelf wear with extremities worn. First book containing volumes 1-3 lacking tooled labels with remnants still visible. Near contemporary bindings, likely circa 1880, unsigned with green pastedowns/endpapers. Ink ownership inscription to first title pages of each volume of T (?) William Wynn. Text blocks mildly toned and without foxing, very clean. Bound without half titles else collated as complete with collation aforementioned. Both boards are securely attached on both books with minor wear to hinges and joints. Top page edges with some discolouration with other page edges very good. Text blocks without writing, marks, foxing, highlighting, pencil, etc other than ink ownership inscriptions to title pages as mentioned (not affecting text). Some very minor foxing in the gutter of the preface to the first volume else none.
