Books and Bookmen | Page 6

some of
the pages have never been opened, at the sides. But the height is only
some 122 millimetres, a mere dwarf. Anything over 130 millimetres is
very rare. Therefore the collector of Elzevirs should have one of those
useful ivory-handled knives on which the French measures are marked,
and thus he will at once be able to satisfy himself as to the exact height
of any example which he encounters.
Let us now assume that the amateur quite understands what a proper
Elzevir should be: tall, clean, well bound if possible, and of the good
date. But we have still to learn what the good dates are, and this is
matter for the study and practice of a well-spent life. We may gossip
about a few of the more famous Elzevirs, those without which no
collection is complete. Of all Elzevirs the most famous and the most
expensive is an old cookery book, "'Le Pastissier Francois.' Wherein is
taught the way to make all sorts of pastry, useful to all sorts of persons.
Also the manner of preparing all manner of eggs, for fast-days, and
other days, in more than sixty fashions. Amsterdam, Louys, and Daniel
Elsevier. 1665." The mark is not the old "Sage," but the "Minerva" with
her owl. Now this book has no intrinsic value any more than a
Tauchnitz reprint of any modern volume on cooking. The 'Pastissier' is
cherished because it is so very rare. The tract passed into the hands of
cooks, and the hands of cooks are detrimental to literature. Just as
nursery books, fairy tales, and the like are destroyed from generation to
generation, so it happens with books used in the kitchen. The
'Pastissier,' to be sure, has a good frontispiece, a scene in a Low
Country kitchen, among the dead game and the dainties. The buxom
cook is making a game pie; a pheasant pie, decorated with the bird's
head and tail-feathers, is already made. {1}

Not for these charms, but for its rarity, is the 'Pastissier' coveted. In an
early edition of the 'Manuel' (1821) Brunet says, with a feigned
brutality (for he dearly loved an Elzevir), "Till now I have disdained to
admit this book into my work, but I have yielded to the prayers of
amateurs. Besides, how could I keep out a volume which was sold for
one hundred and one francs in 1819?" One hundred and one francs! If I
could only get a 'Pastissier' for one hundred and one francs! But our
grandfathers lived in the Bookman's Paradise. "Il n'est pas jusqu'aux
Anglais," adds Brunet--"the very English themselves--have a taste for
the 'Pastissier.'" The Duke of Marlborough's copy was actually sold for
1 pound 4s. It would have been money in the ducal pockets of the
house of Marlborough to have kept this volume till the general sale of
all their portable property at which our generation is privileged to assist.
No wonder the 'Pastissier' was thought rare. Berard only knew two
copies. Pietiers, writing on the Elzevirs in 1843, could cite only five
'Pastissiers,' and in his 'Annales' he had found out but five more.
Willems, on the other hand, enumerates some thirty, not including
Motteley's. Motteley was an uncultivated, untaught enthusiast. He
knew no Latin, but he had a FLAIR for uncut Elzevirs. "Incomptis
capillis," he would cry (it was all his lore) as he gloated over his
treasures. They were all burnt by the Commune in the Louvre Library.
A few examples may be given of the prices brought by 'Le Pastissier' in
later days. Sensier's copy was but 128 millimetres in height, and had
the old ordinary vellum binding,--in fact, it closely resembled a copy
which Messrs. Ellis and White had for sale in Bond Street in 1883. The
English booksellers asked, I think, about 1,500 francs for their copy.
Sensier's was sold for 128 francs in April, 1828; for 201 francs in 1837.
Then the book was gloriously bound by Trautz-Bauzonnet, and was
sold with Potier's books in 1870, when it fetched 2,910 francs. At the
Benzon sale (1875) it fetched 3,255 francs, and, falling dreadfully in
price, was sold again in 1877 for 2,200 francs. M. Dutuit, at Rouen, has
a taller copy, bound by Bauzonnet. Last time it was sold (1851) it
brought 251 francs. The Duc de Chartres has now the copy of Pieters,
the historian of the Elzevirs, valued at 3,000 francs.
About thirty years ago no fewer than three copies were sold at Brighton,
of all places. M. Quentin Bauchart had a copy only 127 millimetres in
height, which he swopped to M. Paillet. M. Chartener, of Metz, had a

copy now bound by Bauzonnet which was sold for four francs in 1780.
We call this the age of cheap books, but before the Revolution