[Fencing. Bound by J.V. van den Heuvel] Manuel d'escrime, par le Capitaine de Bast

Albert ("Bertje") de Bast. The Hague, J. Kips, 1836, (4),XX,185,(1) p., with lithographed frontisp. portrait of the author by the Javanese artist Raden Saleh and 7 (large) fold. lithogr. plates, all but the first after Saleh, very finely bound in contemp. gilt long-grained red mor. by Johannes Vincentius van den Heuvel (signed at foot of spine), gilt inside dentelles, watered blue silk endpapers, a.e.g., sm. 8vo.

A few minimal defects. A very desirable copy bound by the best binder in The Hague during the 19th century (according to the Bibliopolis website of the Royal Library in The Hague). Van den Heuvel (1805-1891) executed work for king William I in the same year as our binding. Pardoel 234; Thimm 25; cf. Vigeant 33 (Brussels issue). For Saleh: Terwen-De Loos, Nederlandse schilders en tekenaars in de Oost (1972), p. 39-40. For the binder: "Beroemde binders (...)", in: De Boekband, I, (1897), p. 61-62 and Storm van Leeuwen, Vorstelijke boekbanden, p 38-40. First and only edition of a very fine fencing manual, published in the same year as a Brussels issue by H. Dumont (still with Kip's printer's monogram). Albert de Bast (c. 1790-after 1837) was a celebrated fencing master at Ghent and an Orangist, who moved to The Hague in 1833. There, he published Salles d'armes à La Haye in 1834. Raden Saleh (c. 1814-1880), pupil of C. Kruseman and A. Schelfhout, is known as the most important 19th-century artist from the Dutch East Indies. As far as is known, the early plates in this fencing manual are his only book illustrations.