THE CHATELLERAULT VATHEK – PERHAPS THE RAREST PIECE OF BECKFORDIANA
[BECKFORD, William.]
Vathek, conte arabe.
Paris, Poinçot; Chatellerault, P. J. B Guimbert, 1787.
8vo, pp. 190, [2 (advertisements)]; a fine copy in contemporary speckled sheep, spine gilt, red morocco label, edges stained yellow; bookplate of the Australian actor Barry Humphries (1934–2023), in a folding leather box by Trevor Lloyd.
Extremely rare, the only traced copy, of a reissue of the sheets of the first Paris edition with a provincially-printed cancel title adding to the imprint the imprimeur-libraire Pierre Jean Baptiste Guimbert, of Châtellerault. This is the rarest piece of Beckfordiana we have ever encountered, virtually unknown.
The dukedom of Châtellerault, a small town in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, had been granted in 1548 to James Hamilton, second Earl of Arran (1519–1575), for his role in arranging the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots, to Francis, Dauphin of France, a title revoked by the French crown in 1559 but still contested and eventually regained by the Hamiltons in 1864. William Beckford’s mother Maria (née Hamilton) was a remote descendant of the Hamilton who was duke of Châtellerault, and Beckford’s pride in Hamilton descent led him to adopt the Hamilton cinquefoil as his device, and to encourage the marriage of his daughter to the tenth Duke.
Despite the historical distance, memory of a Hamilton association with Châtellerault must have lingered among the local populace (there is still a Rue d’Hamilton). The immense scarcity of this Châtellerault issue of Vathek has meant that it has received no critical notice, but it can only be assumed that Guimbert purchased a small number of copies of Poinçot’s edition for reissue as an item of local interest.
Not in Library Hub, OCLC, or CCFr; not listed among Guimbert’s books in Bibliographie poitevine.
Chapman & Hodgkin 3(B)(ii,b), known only from an unspecified French bookseller’s catalogue.
