Romantic Bindings (1820-1850)

First edition, illustrated with a folding map of Palestine in colors and 33 plates on chine collé mounted on strong paper. Text framed with a gothic wooden border. La vie de Jésus-Christ is followed by Objections contre le christianisme et réponses.
Contemporary full red morocco bindings with long grain (Russia leather) signed Malibert. Smooth spines richly decorated with a large plate. Boards decorated with a large central iron in the form of a cross and a large frame plate with various motifs. Frame fillets. Blue and red morocco doublures on the pastedowns with geometric decoration. Gilt edges. Headcaps lightly rubbed. Corners rubbed. A small tear to a lower border of 1cm. A hole on the lower joint of volume 2. Fresh set with light and rare small worming due to tissue guards on the margins of some engravings.
Splendid signed romantic binding perfectly executed in morocco with doublures.

New edition illustrated with a frontispiece and 24 plates and numerous vignettes by Tony Johanot. Handsome romantic illustrated work.
Polychrome publisher's boards signed Lenègre at foot of spine. Smooth spine richly decorated with a polychrome panel with elaborate design. Front board decorated with a chained man and a wide polychrome floral border frame. On the rear board, a scene showing a young man at his work table. The blue is somewhat faded on the spine, one corner rubbed, rear board dusty at margins. One crease on spine. Handsome copy, perfectly fresh, with some occasional scattered foxing.
My Prisons are the memoirs of a man incarcerated by arbitrary power. Following the Neapolitan and Piedmontese revolution against the Austrian occupier, all personalities including Silvio Pellico were imprisoned for ten years at Spielberg in Moravia. The text achieved great success once published due to its pious character, Pellico having found hope only through the Catholic religion. The work also contains poetry.

First edition illustrated with 26 vignettes.
Full green shagreen binding, smooth spine slightly faded decorated with gilt romantic ornamental motifs, boards with blind-ruled frames decorated at their centers with gilt romantic ornamental motifs, scratch on lower board, gilt edges, romantic binding by Boutigny.
Literary contributions by Vigny, Chateaubriand...
Work illustrated with 26 steel-engraved plates and one title vignette by the finest English artists.
Foxing.

First edition, illustrated with 12 steel-engraved plates.

Contemporary full brown straight-grained morocco. Smooth spine decorated with large Romantic tools with date at foot. Covers with large blind Greek key border and gilt fillet frame. All edges gilt. Decorative gilt board-edges. White watered paper endpapers. Spine uniformly sunned, turned brown. One corner rubbed. Several gatherings browned. Handsome copy nonetheless, in contemporary morocco.

One of Curmer's famous and beautiful publications, who had just published in 1838 one of the most celebrated Romantic books: Paul et Virginie. An essential literary figure from the mid-19th century onwards, La bedollière, formerly a bohemian alongside Baudelaire, whom he frequented at the café, here gives his first collection of short stories; he is one of the models of the journalist-writer (he would contribute numerous articles to Les français peints par eux-mêmes) who would make writing a lucrative profession. He is talented, possesses a fine pen, but devoid of any genius.

First edition, illustrated with two engraved titles (in English), one colored plate and 117 steel engravings (with tissue guards) by Allom, Bartlett, and M'Culloch, engraved by Griffiths, Varrall, Prior, etc. Superb illustration, as English engravers were particularly prized during this period for their fineness of execution, and French publishers placed extensive orders in England for the illustration of their books.
Full publisher's binding. Half red morocco decorated with a large special gilt stamp (arms and symbols of Scotland) on wine-colored sheep boards stamped with a large decorative floral stamp in blind. Edges gilt. Magnificent and rare English publisher's binding, despite some defects: a slight lack to head of volume I; headcap of volume II heavily worn; some corners bumped and rubbing to edges.
Rare pale scattered foxing (virtually non-existent on text), mainly in margins and caused by tissue guards, but heavy on the 2 titles. History of Scotland, its particularities, its monuments...

First edition, illustrated with 26 English steel engravings (including the second title).
Half wine-red morocco binding. Romantic Boutigny plaque on spine. Very fine marbled paper on boards. Boutigny binder's label on endpaper. Spine uniformly sunned, without gravity, and ultimately aesthetic. Scattered foxing in margins, despite very white paper.
Literary contributions by Chateaubriand, Alexandre Dumas, Paul de Kock, Casimir Delavigne...

First edition, illustrated with 148 steel-engraved plates, including 96 in the first three volumes, by Thomas Allom; the fourth volume comprises 52 plates including 36 by Eugène Lami and 16 by Allom.
Full midnight blue glazed calf. Flat spine with false raised bands decorated with various roulettes and fillets with some compartments in morocco. Covers decorated with rich Romantic frieze and angular blind stamps. Red morocco title-label. Marbled edges. Scratches to covers. Headcaps and joints lightly rubbed. Superb English binding.
Volume IV, which is often lacking, is the translation of Un été à Paris, by Jules Janin. Through its illustrations, one finds a Balzacian Paris. It should be noted that the first volume contains numerous scenes of the Pyrenees, very fashionable at the time. Another volume contains numerous scenes of the Loire (Saumur, Angers, Amboise...).
The work thus seeks to bring together everything remarkable to be found in France, both from an architectural and landscape perspective, with illustrations accompanying the historical and descriptive text. The illustrative richness is remarkable, and one can admire equally the château de Pau and the Panthéon, the cirque de Gavarni and the cathedral of Orléans. What is interesting is that following the trends of the time, the engravings feature figures in period costume, and often show places as they were then.