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Bibliophilists are not so many, but they do exist. Mr. Wolfi is one of them. He lives in the heart of Paris and he has been tracking down books for his pleasure for more than 20 years. Almost from the start he decided to specialize in... 18^th century full morocco  bindings! And his bookshelf sure looks good. Let’s take a closer look at it.

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Strictly Morroco !

On life vast ocean diversely we sail,

Reason the card, but passion is the gale.

Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man

Old books collectors are not so many, but they do exist. Mr. Wolfi is one of them. He lives in the heart of Paris and he has been tracking down books for his pleasure for more than 20 years. Long ago, he decided to specialize in... 18^th century full morocco bindings ! And his bookshelf sure looks good. Let’s take a closer look at it.

Cervantes

“I started to buy old books 20 years ago, at the small Brassens Market in Paris, Mr Wolfi remembers. I bought a copy of La Bruyère’s Les Caractères for my wife’s birthday. It had a modest binding and it cost 300 francs (roughly 45 euros). I thaught it was quite a fair price for a 18^th century book.” As any beginner, Mr Wolfi made some senseless purchases for a while, but as a well-advised – and not wealthy – man, he soon realized he’d rather buy less books and concentrate on exceptional ones. Up till today, he has remained faithful to this philosophy, and he buys a maximum of 10 or 12 books a year. As a matter of fact, his collection does not exceed a hundred carefully selected titles. “An ordinary book is always hard to sell back”, he says. Exception, as far as binding is concerned, means full morocco. The goat leather is more resistant than veal, indeed, and perfectly contrasts gildings. But books are not mere objects, they are the embodiement of the Word. “I always try to combine the text, the binding, the condition and the provenance”, confesses our cunning collector. Religious books were often bound in morocco, but Mr Wolfi does not care about Bourdalou’s sermons, for example – no matter the binding. He sticks to literature and the writings of the French philosophers from the 18^th century. “We know that the Comtesse Du Barry had 1,000 books bound in full morocco at once, and that it cost her the price of a beautiful dress - which sounds quite fair.” An ordinary full morocco binding would roughly double the price of a book. Elaborated ones would multiply it. It is still the case today...

Dangerous binding

Mr Wolfi hardly ventures beyond the 18^th century but makes an exception for his favorite binder, Bozerian. He loves mosaic bindings, bindings “à la fanfare”, etc. But is not that keen on coats of arms he judges “ too impersonal ”. According to him, a prestigious provenance means a book coming from the bookshelf of a famous book collectors such as Beckford or the Duke de La Valière. Mr Wolfi is a meticulous man who has read a lot of old booksellers’ catalogues ; that’s where he spotted the must-have editions. When mentioning the Khel edition of Voltaire’s works, he means a full morocco bound copy, with the figures bound “ avant la lettre” (before the numbers of the pages were indicated on the engravings) – the top one. As far as his copy of La Fontaine’s Contes is concerned, it is the 1762 edition, in two in-8° volumes, “one of the 10 or 20 copies bound in reliures de présent ”, he precises. Full morroco ? Come on, of course... bound by Derome le jeune with Mr Gravelot’s irons. An exceptionnal copy. On his bookshelf also lies a fantastic copy of La Fontaine’s Fables. It is composed of four in-folio volumes bound in contemporary red morocco. “One of the 100 copies printed on grand papier from Holland, proudly underlines Mr Wolfi. The margins are 500 mm high.” His almost incredible copy of Chardelos de Laclos’ Les Liaisons Dangereuses is so clean, it looks like it was printed and bound yesterday. “These two in-8° volumes are hard to find in that kind of binding – this was the post-Revolution period. The binding is signed Bozerian, the book was printed on vellum paper.” Another one that took Mr Wolfi some time is the Cervantes’ Don Quichote printed in one in-4° volume in 1746 and illustrated with plates “avant la lettre”. No room for mediocrity on this bookshelf.

Mr Wolfi loves to glance through his treasures, but he does not read them. “I download Gallica’s scanned copies”, he says. To read an old book always damages it to some extent and Mr Wolfi is obsessed by preservation. He talks about his treasures in a casual way, making reason the card by applying strict, almost mathematical, rules to his passion. But the latter remains the gale that moves him. As a matter of fact, it has taken him into a slightly different direction, lately, and Mr Wolfi seems to enjoy the exctiement of the hunt more thant the taste of the game. He loves tracking down the perfect morocco at the perfect price all around the world. “I have recently bought an original edition of Helvetius’ De l’Homme in an American sale at a derisory price!” Denmark, England, France... Mr Wolfi leaves 10 orders to win one book. He also buys from professional booksellers at times, and even from eBay, where he says he has found a couple of very nice books. Nonetheless, Mr Wolfi is still looking for his Grail : a copy of Voltaire’s Contes et Nouvelles from 1778... in full morocco, of course. “Voltaire’s contes were not that prized at the time, they were rarely bound in morocco.”

Mr Wolfi feels a little bit lonely in the cold world of antiquarian books, and he’d love to meet some of his fellow collectors. “In our domain, people are not connected," he says. "We meet from time to time but I’d love to explore others’collections, to exchange and discuss.”  No doubt a lot of people would also like to contemplate his treasures and to hear him talk about them. Just to feel the breeze...

© Thibaul Ehrengardt