France illustrated, exhibiting its landcape scenery, antiquities, military and ecclesiastical architecture

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.