'Bordeaux et ses vins'
Guide de l'Étranger à Bordeaux et dans la Gironde. Bordeaux ses Environs et ses Vins Classés par Ordre de Mérite.
Bordeaux: Feret Fils, 1850.
Price: $5,000.00
About the item
First French edition. 4 lithographic plates in bistre, folding map of Bordeaux at rear. [iv], 319, [1] pp. 1 vols. 12mo. 'Bordeaux et ses vins'. Red half morocco and cloth sides, spine gilt in period style, black lettering piece, t.e.g. Map backed with tissue (small losses at periphery along one fold). A fine copy of an uncommon work. Cagle 140; Simon, Bibliotheca Vinaria, p. 264; Bitting, p. 93 (4th ed only).
Item #311966
The first French edition of the classic reference guide to the wines of Bordeaux, preceding by several years the official classification of the region in 1855.
In 1846 Michel-Edouard Feret suggested to Charles Cocks, an Englishman living in Bordeaux, that he write a guide to the wines of Bordeaux, including historical observations and assessments of recent vintages. The result was published in London in 1846 as Bordeaux: Its Wines, and the Claret Country. This French edition, published by Feret's firm, is largely a translation of the 1846 title but with the addition of the classification of wines in order of merit. "The 1850 Guide was the first in which Cocks classified the wines of Bordeaux in order of merit" (Cagle). Because of the important changes introduced in the first French edition, later English editions were actually translations from the French (cf. Gabler, G16570 & g16580). Cocks’ work went through numerous editions and has achieved classic status; it remains in print today, under the title Cocks & Féret or Bordeaux et ses vins.