Les modes de Paris : variations du goût et de l'esthétique de la femme 1797 - 1897.

First edition, one of the deluxe copies on grand papier (90 copies on japon impérial) with a duplicate suite of one hundred plates hors-texte, before coloring, being 200 plates hors-texte, and numerous in-text illustrations in black. No. XCIX. Illustrations by François Courboin.
Half-cherry red morocco Bradel binding with corners signed at the top of the first endpaper S. David. Smooth Jansenist spine with author, title and date in gilt. Top edge gilt. Small scratches and traces of rubbing on spine. A few dark spots on upper board. Some very occasional foxing.
Illustrated covers preserved. Copy entirely uncut.
Very handsome copy.
Dry stamp on half-title, monogram G.A.
Work of the greatest interest on the history and evolution of fashion from the Directoire to the Third Republic. As Octave Uzanne emphasizes in his preface: "Each of its one hundred color illustrations hors-texte is an exact document, an overall view of a vanished corner, if not modified, of Paris and Fashion appears there only as a logical, indispensable accessory, leaving all the interest to the background of the décor where we find the most fashionable aspects of our old city. As for the two hundred and thirty drawings in the text, they have the charm, the verve, the lightness of the old vignettes of the School of 1840 and will surely seduce amateurs, both the modern curious and those who bring to their passion for the illustrated book some retrospective tenderness."