[GRANDVILLE]. Flowers animated by J.-J. Grandville. Introductions by Alph. Karr. Text By Taxile Delord. First [-Second] part. Paris : Gabriel de Gonet, 1847. - 2 parts in one volume in-8, 267 x 178 : frontispiece, 262 pp. 28 plates ; frontispiece, (2 ff.), pp. (263)-364, IV, 62 pp., (1 f.), IV pp. (65)-132, 24 plates. Red morocco, framed with a broad cold fillet between four gilt fillets and gilt rocaille plate in the centre of the boards, spine ribbed and decorated, red morocco framing inside, decorated with gilt fillets and motifs, white moiré silk lining and endpapers, gilt edges (Corfmat). First edition of this famous collection of tales inspired by flowers and composed by Alphonse Karr, Taxile Delord and Louis-François Raban, the latter presented under the pseudonym of Count Foelix. It is undoubtedly one of the most original and attractive books illustrated by Grandville. It is decorated with two woodcut frontispieces in colour by Porret and Quichon, and 50 colour plates engraved on steel by Geoffroy. The majority of the illustrations represent human beings disguised as flowers, sometimes accompanied by animals whose manner is human. A court case in 1867 established that only part of the illustration was by Grandville. The book was published in 1847, the same year that Grandville died in the hospital in Vanves of a fit of madness. Grandville had only had time to execute about fifteen drawings and to examine about fifteen others. At the end of the second part is the Botanique et horticulture des dames by Fœlix, with an introduction by Alphonse Karr, illustrated with two black botanical plates. A first edition copy, in a strictly period binding signed by Corfmat active from 1825 to 1860, who worked mainly for Queen Marie-Amélie and the princes of the royal house. Silk of the endpapers partly detached. Some foxing.