Figures contemporaines tirées de l'album Mariani

First edition of each volume.
Publisher’s full burgundy cloth bindings, flat spines, blue endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers preserved for the second volume, front cover preserved for the first volume, gilt top edges.
Minor discoloration spots on the boards.
The first volume includes 75 biographies of notable figures of the time (each featuring a facsimile autograph and a wood-engraved portrait by Brauer), including Paul Arène, Léon Cladel, Coquelin ainé, Charles Gounod, Frédéric Mistral, Albert Robida, Octave Uzanne...
The second volume contains 76 biographies (each with a facsimile autograph and a wood-engraved portrait by Brauer) of figures such as Auguste Bartholdi, Benjamin Constant, Georges Courteline, Alexandre Dumas, Thomas Edison, Judith Gautier, Jules Massenet, Catulle Mendès, Henri Rochefort, Georges Rochegrosse, Emile Zola...
Some light foxing.
A handsome set.