Set of 52 original plates, etched and enhanced with watercolours at the time, numbered 1 to 52, mounted in pairs under mats.
Leaves in red half calf slipcase (early 20th century), red shagreen boards.
The plates vary in size (10.8 x 17.6 cm to 28.1 x 18.8 cm) and paper stock, as was often the case with La Mésangère's publications. Unbound engraved title on a bifolium, printed separately, absent from most copies. It is replaced here by its identical reprint by Gosselin (1893-1903), on antique watermarked paper and bears the publisher's 'G' mark, characteristic of this reprint a century later. All the plates, however, are in their first edition, without the G mark added by Gosselin to the lower corners of the engravings, in the figure or the bowl, occasionally accompanied by a date.
Some foxing, a few rare engravings showing traces of pasted tabs on the reverse. Plate 42 restored without missing. A green stain in plate 11 probably due to the watercolour of the landscape. Twelve plates are trimmed to the plate mark: pl. 12 (12.7 x 19.2 cm), pl. 15 (12.4 x 18.7 cm), pl. 19 (11.9 x 19.8 cm), pl. 29 (11.9 x 19 cm), pl. 30 (12.5 x 19 cm), pl. 39 (12.1 x 18.4 cm), pl. 41 (12.5 x 19.1 cm), pl. 42 (12.5 x 19.1 cm), pl. 48 (11.9 x 18.3 cm), pl. 49 (12.9 x 19.9 cm), pl. 51 (12.5 x 18.4 cm), and pl. 52 (12 x 18.1 cm). Plate 37 is trimmed around the black border (10.8 x 17.6 cm). More pronounced foxing in the margins of plates 4, 28, 30, 31, 35, 44, 45, and 47.
A rare and precious complete suite of 52 original costume prints from the Directoire and First Empire periods.
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