Theatre choisi illustre; notices et annotations par Henri Clouard.

Bibliotheque Larousse. Paris., 1912 Complete three volumes in one in French. 200; 238, (1); 222, (1) printed pages. 13 plates, 11 text illustrations. Sixth thousand printing. Three frontispieces with tissue guards. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. Engraved armorial bookplate of John Ponsonby on front paste-down endpaper. Binders printed signature on verso of front free endpaper "Birdsall, Northampton" (preliminary and end blank pages slightly foxed). 14 x 19.5 cm. Full contemporary speckled calf by Birdsall of Northampton. Boards with triple gilt fillets. Spine in double gilt fillet ruled compartments, with floral motif, gilt, hand-tooling and olive green morocco, gilt lettered label (extremely lightly scuffed but in near fine condition). Birdsall and Son, of Northampton, was one of the main bookbinding firms in Great Britain from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Anthony Birdsall the younger (1877-1972) was chiefly responsible for maintaining the family tradition of fine binding, especially following the early death of Herbert Birdsall in 1924. In 1961 the company ceased trading. Sir John Ponsonby KCB , CMG , DSO (1866-1952) was the great grandson of Charles, the second Earl of Grey and the British Prime Minister who gave his name to Earl Grey Tea. John Ponsonby's grandfather was Major General Sir Frederick Cavendish Ponsonby (1783-1837), who had fought against Napoleon on the Iberian Peninsula under Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. The Ponsonby family also included the Earls of Bessborough, who were related to the Dukes of Devonshire by marriage, and Major General Sir William Ponsonby (1772-1815), who had fallen at Waterloo. John Ponsonby was commissioned into the Coldstream Guards in 1888. He served in Uganda in 1898 and was seconded for service in the Second Boer War in South Africa in February 1902. He fought in World War I as Commander of the 2nd Guards Brigade from 1915 and then as General Officer Commanding 40th Division from 1917, leading his Division at the Battle of Cambrai and in March 1918 during the German Michael Offensive. In July 1918 he went on to become General Officer Commanding 5th Division, a Regular Army formation (one of the Old Contemptibles), and went on to fight with the Third Army on the Somme, the Hindenburg and in the final battle of the war on the Sambre Canal on 4th November 1918. When the Armistice was signed, 5th Division was near Mauberge. After the War he became General Officer Commanding the Madras District of India. He retired in 1928. Ponsonby lived at at Haile Hall on the edge of the West Cumberland fells. Its four-gabled facade was broken by a large handsome Venetian window, which illuminated the library on the first floor, where this book may have been shelved at one time.. Hardcover. Near Fine.