ÉMILE CAMPARDON (1837-1915) La Cheminée de Madame de La Poupelinière. [The Fireplace of Madame de La Poupelinière] Paris: Charavay frères, 1880.

14 x 10.5 cm. Edition limited to 233 numbered copies. Copy no. 172 on Dutch paper. Bound in morocco. First edition of this piquant episode of the gallant history of the 18th century, with an etched frontispiece by Greux. The Maréchal de Richelieu, in love with Madame de La Popelinière, the former actress Mimi Dancourt, had ingeniously rented a building adjoining this lady’s apartment and, so as not to arouse the jealousy of the husband, entered his mistress’s rooms at night by means of a revolving plate installed at the back of the fireplace. Émile Campardon (1837-1915) was a French historian, archivist and writer. He was an archivist and head of the judicial section of the Archives nationales de France from 1857 to 1908, and the author of numerous books. At the beginning of the 20th century he published ‘Quatrains’ and ‘Souvenirs d’un archiviste’. Intended for a circle of friends, these extremely rare volumes contain amusing and impertinent portraits of 19th-century archivists.