Oeuvres de M. Franklin.

First edition in French of Franklin’s collected works, a rare presentation copy inscribed by Franklin to his friend and fellow polymath Aimé-Ambroise-Joseph Feutry. Quarto, two volumes bound into one in full contemporary French mottled calf, elaborate gilt tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised bands, morocco spine label lettered in gilt, marbled endpaper, all edges stained red, ribbon bound in, illustrated with an engraved portrait frontispiece and twelve engraved plates. Presentation copy, inscribed by Benjamin Franklin to fellow polymath Aimé-Ambroise-Joseph Feutry on the half-title page, “A Mons. Feutry. From the Author,” with a further note in another hand on the title, presumably Feutry’s, recording the gift, “Donné à Feutry, par l’auteur, Le 16 Avril 1777,” dating it to April 16, 1777, only months after Franklin’s arrival in Paris. Aimé-Ambroise-Joseph Feutry gave up a career in law to devote himself to letters, writing chiefly poetry, some of it in praise of the American Revolution, while also pursuing a keen interest in ballistics and designing a number of military machines. A member of Franklin’s circle at Passy, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society on Franklin’s nomination, and he honored his friend with two poems that he published in his Nouveaux Opuscules of 1779, a volume whose title page records that very membership. No letters from Franklin to Feutry are known to survive, and their friendship is chiefly documented through Feutry’s correspondence with Franklin’s grandson, William Temple Franklin. From the library of renowned Americana collector Jay Snider with his small bookplate to the pastedown. In near fine condition, with occasional light foxing, expert paper repairs to the margins of the frontispiece, and expert restoration to the joints, a very attractive and well-preserved copy. Translated and edited by Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg. Ford, 315; James N. Green and Peter Stallybrass, Benjamin Franklin: Writer and Printer (2006), p. 130; Papers of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Willcox, 23:557. Housed in a custom velvet-lined full calf clamshell box with red morocco spine labels lettered in gilt. A remarkable association copy, linking Franklin to a member of his Paris circle in the very first months of his celebrated mission to France.