Mystification

THE FORTSAS CATALOGUE – A FASCIMILE WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY LESSING J. ROSENWALD with the CATALOGUE DE LIVRES. D’UNE TRES-RICHE MAIS PEU NOMBREUSE COLLECTION feu M. le Comte J.-N.-A. DE FORTSAS. Provenant De La Bibliotheque

réf. 00201419 — North Hills Pa: Bird & Bull Press 1970. Printed for the Philobiblon Club. Limited Edition. #23 of 250. 9-1/2 by 12 inches. 13 pages plus catalogue facsimile. Cloth spine with marbled paper boards. Fraying and wear to 0.5" of bottom spine else near fine. The only facsimile of this hoax; a momento of a meeting of the Philobiblon Club in Alverthorpe Gallery in Pennsylvania where the members were the guests of the President Lessing J. Rosenwald. Rosenwald reproduced his copy of the Fortsas Catalogue and wrote the introduction found in this copy adapted from the paper he read that evening. The "Avis" and the text of M. Polain's newspaper report of the sale are reproduced from the originals bound in with the facsimile copy of the Catalogue in pocket in rear. Fifteen years after the hoax August 1840 the printer of this catalogue M. Hoyois wanted to reprint this highly collectible catalogue but was prevented by the courts. Instead he published a transcript of the trial. A fabulous and exciting story of one of the world's great biblio hoaxes. unknown