BOUTET (Henri). Les Modes féminines du XIXe siècle interpretées en cent pointes sèches aquarellées au pinceau. I 1801-1850 - II 1851-1900. Paris: Éditions de la Maison d'art, 1901-1903. - Two volumes in-4, 285 x 208: 14 pp. 50 plates, illustrated cover; (4 ff.) 50 plates, illustrated cover. Blue half-maroquin with corners, gilt fillets, spine decorated with wavy irons, gilt stars and fans, as well as small mosaic flowers and parasols, gilt head, untrimmed, cover and spine preserved (Durvand). First edition of this charming suite devoted to the evolution of women's fashion throughout the 19th century. Prefaced by Jules Claretie, it includes 100 original watercolor drypoints by Henri BOUTET, protected by serpents. They depict Parisian women in fashionable situations: reading in the salon, dressed for a ball, on the skating rink, in the park, in the stores, sheltering from the wind on a bridge, in the bookshops on the quays, in the museum, etc. "An entire century is reborn in these Modes féminines. It's a singular and delightful parade of the inventions of the dressmakers and milliners who, every year, do their utmost to vary the costume of that attractive being, the Woman. [...] And as he is as witty as he is talented, the painter of manners has had the ingenuity to make himself a painter of landscapes. Each of his nineteenth-century figures [...] stands out against a background of Parisian landscape that frames the apparition, 'situates' it [...] and makes these hundred delightful Parisiennes a kind of extra in a comedy of a hundred different acts that could also be called the History of Paris" (J. Claretie). One of the first copies on Japon paper, justified no. 20 and signed by the artist, with a suite of all the drypoints before the letter, in bistre or sanguine. Some of the color plates are enhanced with gold. The print-run justification announces 60 copies on Japon, numbered in Roman numerals, with a suite of plates and an original sketch. However, none of the first copies appear to have the original drawing. A very fine copy in a contemporary mosaic binding signed by Durvand. Spine faded.