‎(GARCIN, J.)‎
‎Le vrai Patineur ou principes sur l'art de patiner avec grace, Précédé de réflexions et de remarques critiques sur la manière de quelques Patineurs inélégens, ainsi que sur les différentes formes de Patins, le choix qu'on doit en faire, et les variations dont cette chaussure est susceptible; Le tout orné des gravures représentant les principales attitudes du Patineur. Par Jn. Garcin.‎

‎Paris, Chez Delespinasse, Delaunay, Nepveu, Et chez l'Auteur, de l'Imprimerie de J. Gille fils, 1813. With 8 numbered engraved plates. xxiv, 93, (1) pp. 12mo. Contemporary marbled wrappers, uncut, as issued. Foster, Bibliography of Skating, 35. The rare first edition of the first French book describing ice-skating as an artisic and gracious form of moving, emphasizing grace and form, illustrated with 8 engraved plates: one as a frontispiece giving an overall view of a skating rink, engraved by Ambroise Tardieu, and 7 further engravings of individual skaters in a different pose. It is one of the first separate works in any language devoted to ice-skating. The book was published when ice skating became something fashionable to do for the members of the European aristocracy.Garcin, as opposed to the English approach, compared skating with dancing and stressed grace and artistry. The work was dedicated to Mademoiselle Gosselin, principal dancer at the Académie Imperial de Musique. In France, its was Marie-Antoinette who introduced skating to the court, and she seems to have been a rather accomplished skater herself. In England the first club was founded in Scotland, Edinburgh, in 1742, the Edinburgh Skating Club. At the end a short dictionary of ice-skater's terminology is added. The work also gives suggestions as to the choice of skates, how to tie them, and the like; the skaters depicted in various positions have names such as "Le Beau Narcisse", "L'Apollon", l'Adonis", etc. Garcin's work remained unique and was reprinted some 40 years later, when ice-skating started to attract the attention (and participation) of the general public. - Small hole in page 81/2 affecting a few letters, plate 7 bound between plates 3 and 4, plate 8 bound between plates 5 and 6. Ownership's stamp in blank portion of half-title: Max Machey - Epernay. ‎

Reference : 26492

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