Les mille et une nuits, contes arabes

First issue with three half-titles, three frontispieces, one heightened in gold, and richly illustrated with ornamental borders and in-text vignettes, together with fourteen full-page plates by Andrew Best Leloir and Levilly. Edition prepared from the 1704 text, revised and accompanied by a dissertation by Baron Silvestre de Sacy.
Rare publisher’s bindings in red half shagreen. Spines decorated with a large gilt ornamental panel featuring an oriental dancer at its centre, surrounded by multiple motifs inspired by the East. Large dark stain at the foot of volume two, as well as a narrow split to the leather measuring approximately 8 cm. Foxing and browning throughout. From p. 70 of volume one onward, a water stain affecting the lower margin, similarly present throughout volume two. Pages 26 and 27 with a tear without loss. Corners rubbed. 

One of the finest illustrated books of the Romantic period and of wood engraving, remarkable both for its ornamental richness and for the extraordinary inventiveness of its designs. The volumes may be leafed through like an inexhaustible picture album and contain numerous engravings with a latent eroticism.