James Francis Edward - The Old Chevalier

London: J.M. Dent & Co., 1907. 'The Old Pretender'
A Fine 'Extra-Illustrated' Cosway-Style Binding by Bayntun (Rivière)

COSWAY-STYLE BINDING. BAYNTUN (RIVIÈRE), binders. HAILE, Martin. James Francis Edward - The Old Chevalier. With 11 photogravure illustrations. London: J.M. Dent & Co., 1907.

First edition. Octavo (9 5/8 x 6 inches; 218 x 152 mm.). [i]-xii, [xiii, list of illustrations], [xiv, blank], 1-479, [1, printers imprint] pp. Title-page printed in black and red. Eleven (on ten) photogravure plates.

Extra-illustrated by the insertion of twelve engraved plates, three of which are hand-colored.

Bound ca. 1940 by Bayntun (Rivière), stamp-signed in gilt on front turn-in. Full brown crushed levant morocco, both covers with single gilt fillet around a double-ruled and gilt-dotted inner border. Front cover with a broad panel border of gilt-tooled thistles and gilt dots, portions of the background with leather dyed black. In the center a large gilt arabesque lozenge framing a fine oval portrait miniature set under glass (measuring 3 1/4 x 2 1/2 inches; 82 x 63 mm.) of Clementina Walkinshaw. Spine with five raised bands elaborately decorated in gilt in a repeated thistle and dot design, lettered in gilt in two compartments. Gilt-dotted board edges, decorative gilt turn-ins with thistle corner pieces, brown watered silk liners and endleaves. Housed in the original felt-lined brown cloth slipcase, spine with two black morocco labels lettered in gilt. A superb example of a Bayntun (Rivière) Cosway-Style binding. From the renowned collections of J.F.D. Tutt and Paul Edward Chevalier with their bookplates on verso of front endleaf.

The extra illustrations: Thomas Osborne, First Duke of Leeds (hand-colored); Arthur Lord Balmering; James Butler, Second Duke of Ormond (hand-colored); Cardinal Dubois; John Erskine, Earl of Mar; Daniel Finch, Earl of Nottingham; James Earl of Derwentwater; Philip Duke of Wharton; Tsar Peter the Great; Thomas Pelham, Duke of Newcastle (hand-colored); Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, Chief of the Clan Fraser; Charles XII.

James Francis Edward Stuart (1688-1766), nicknamed The Old Pretender by Whigs, was the son of King James II and VII of England, Scotland and Ireland, and his second wife, Mary of Modena. He was Prince of Wales from July 1688 until, just months after his birth, his Catholic father was deposed and exiled in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. James II's Protestant elder daughter (the prince's half-sister), Mary II, and her husband, William III, became co-monarchs and the Bill of Rights 1689 and Act of Settlement 1701 excluded Catholics from the English throne and, subsequently, the British throne. James Francis Edward was raised in Continental Europe and known as the Chevalier de St. George. After his father's death in 1701, he claimed the English, Scottish and Irish crown as James III of England and Ireland and James VIII of Scotland, with the support of his Jacobite followers and his cousin Louis XIV of France. Fourteen years later, he unsuccessfully attempted to gain the throne of Britain during the Jacobite rising of 1715. A final attempt at rebellion, led by his son Charles Edward Stuart, was made in the Jacobite rising of 1745. Following his death in 1766, his elder son, Charles Edward Stuart aka Bonnie Prince Charlie, continued to claim the British crown as part of the Jacobite Succession.

Clementina Maria Sophia Walkinshaw (1720-1802) was the Glaswegian mistress of Bonnie Prince Charlie.

John Francis Donald Tutt (1893-1971) was a renowned veterinary surgeon and collector of fine bindings. His collection (including the present binding) was sold at Sotheby's London in October 1983.

Paul Edward Chevalier (born 1939) collected fine bindings including jeweled bindings and Cosway bindings and always purchased only the very best. For twelve years he did exactly that until he assembled what was possibly America's finest private collection of British, American and European bindings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The collection was sold at Christie's New York, November 9th, 1990.