Bordeaux & Its Wines
London, Clive Coates, 1995. Feret, Edouard. Bordeaux & Its Wines: classified by order of merit - 2nd English Edition improved. (facsimile of 1883 edition) Clive Coates: London, 1995. 8vo (195x120mm) dec grey cloth bds 616pp. (No 165/500). Fine/-
Second-hand hardcover
FÉRET, Édouard (1844-1910)
Bordeaux and its Wines: classed by order of merit, 2nd English Edition improved.
[London]: Clive Coates MW, 1995. Facsimile edition of the 1883 edition published by G Masson (Paris) and Feret & Fils (Bordeaux). Printed by Smith Settle, Otley.
Octavo (195x120mm) grey cloth, black ruled and decorated, gilt lettered boards,[12, half-title, title, list of subscribers],[5]-xi,[1],616,[4]pp : π¹⁸, 1-17¹⁸, 18². Eight colour maps, three folding (only seven are listed in the table of contents); numerous monochrome woodblock engraved illustrations of the various château and chai by Eugène Vergez. Limited Edition, hand numbered, No 165 of 500.
¶ In 1846 Michel-Édouard Féret, a publisher and Charles Cocks, an English schoolmaster and wine enthusiast living in Bordeaux decided to publish a directory of wine for the English. Bordeaux, its Wines and the Claret Country was published in London later that year. Féret then convinced Cocks of the value of a French translation Bordeaux et ses Vins which was published in 1850. Cocks died in 1854. Subsequent editions in French overseen by Féret ensued, and in 1883 a second English edition was published, being a revised and updated translation of the 4th French Edition (October 1881). New editions (often colloquially described as Cocks & Féret) are still published roughly every 10 years or so in French and English.
The wines of Bordeaux were Clive Coates' first love and what he first wrote on (although he later fell harder in love with Burgundy). A keen collector of wine books, he had copies of most editions of Cocks & Féret, and it is likely this facsimile is of a copy from his personal collection.
Jean Baptiste Eugène Vergez (1846-1925) was a native of Bordeaux and part of the Bordeaux Landscape School. He illustrated several early editions of Cocks & Féret, providing several hundred engravings of the châteaux of Bordeaux.
An excellent fine facsimile of a scarce reference.
§ OCLC records 1 holding of the original, British Library;
§ Gabler G16392; Bitting p.93 French edition, see note; Simon BV p.95.
Item #8939
Price: $145.00 AUD