[HOCQUARD (Édouard)]. The Lavater of the ladies, or the art of connoisseurship of women on their physiognomy. Paris: Mme ve Hocquart, 1808. - In-16, 135 x 110: frontispiece, 64 pp., 29 plates, silent cover. Dark blue box, white triangle set with a black painted net at the corners of the dishes, original miniature under glass placed in the center of the first dish, smooth back, dark blue box edge linings, dark blue suede guards, untrimmed, cover preserved, flat back box case and dark blue box edges (M.-J. Guian-Milliaud). A rare original edition of this famous physiognomy book, which has been republished many times. This is the edition that we encounter the least often. The study of physiognomy was very much in vogue at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century, promoted in particular by the Swiss pastor Johann Caspar Lavater (1740-1801). The purpose of this science was to discover a person's personality , feelings and emotions by observing and analyzing a person's physique, especially the face . This is what Édouard Hocquart, the presumed author of the book, tries to teach us about women, showing "that the expression of virtue, innocence, candor, as well as that of vice, belong to certain characteristic traits. It is primarily a popularization work of Lavater's physiognomonic studies . The edition is illustrated with 30 plates, 28 of which are in colour and depict female faces . Very nice copy enriched on the first course with an original painted miniature from the 18th or early 19th century, representing a woman in bust seen from the front. The binding was made by Marie-José Guian-Milliaud, on her own account. Complete copy but pages 8 to 10 were mistakenly bound at the beginning and the false title page before page 13.