DEBUCOURT (Philibert-Louis). - Lot 52

DEBUCOURT (Philibert-Louis). Modes et manières du jour à paris, à la fin du 18ème siècle et au début du 19ème. Paris: Au Bureau du Journal des Dames [Gosselin, 1893-1903]. - In-8, 210 x 140: engraved title, 52 plates. Old pink bradel boards, brown title page, gilt head, untrimmed (period binding). Colas, no. 814. - Cohen, col. 275. - Fenaille, L'Œuvre gravé de P. L. Debucourt, n° 71-122. - Roux, Inventaire du fonds français, graveurs du XVIIIe siècle, BNF, VI, pp. 186-191. A fine reissue of this very rare suite devoted to the Merveilleuses et autres élégantes de l'Empire. First published by La Mésangère between 1798 and 1808, it comprises a title-frontispiece and 52 plates finely etched by Debucourt and hand-colored. This faithful copy of excellent workmanship was produced by Gosselin at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries: it is distinguished only by a small "G.", "e. G." and sometimes a date in a lower corner of the plate. "This is the most interesting and also the rarest of the fashion collections so characteristic of the early 19th century" (Colas). The models are depicted full-length, most often in a garden or landscape, sometimes with a young gallant at their side. They are accompanied by brief, suggestive captions, in keeping with the spirit of the times, that add salt to the scene: "le prétexte, n'allez pas vous perdre, elle est prête à cueillir, il ne m'a pas vu, etc." (the pretext, don't get lost, she's ready to pick, he hasn't seen me, etc.). This sequence is evoked by Edmond de Goncourt in Histoire de la société française pendant le Directoire: "others [girls] still sit in the garden, dressed in better taste, and provocative in their simplicity: dress, shawl, all that has the mission of veiling them is gauze and linen; they are all white, all airy, all beautiful in these whitenesses; and, their feet clasped in pale carmine satin, they seem dressed in vapors and shod with roses." A very good, untrimmed copy. Also included: DEBUCOURT (Philibert-Louis). Modes et manières du jour à paris, à la fin du 18ème siècle et au début du 19ème. Paris : Au Bureau du Journal des Dames, [Gosselin, 1893-1903]. - In-8, 211 x 136 to 260 x 184, 5 engraved titles and 93 plates. Leaves, modern black slipcase, engraved title on front cover. Rare set of proofs of this reprint of Debucourt's suite by Gosselin, from the printer's collection. It comprises 6 engraved titles, one of which is glued to the slipcase, and 93 colored plates on different papers and of varying format, including sixteen with handwritten remarks, twenty-six marked "model", with occasional trials of different colors. Twenty-two plates are in duplicate, six in triplicate, one in quadruplicate and two in quintuplicate. Plates no. 2, 8, 50 and 51 are missing. Not all plates bear Gosselin's signature. Some foxing and minor soiling to some plates.