DEBUCOURT (Philibert-Louis) Modes et manières du jour à Pari - Lot 168

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, 212 x 136: engraved title, 52 plates. Long-grained green half-maroquin, smooth spine decorated, untrimmed (period binding). Beautiful reprint 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.", or "e. According to Colas, it is "the most interesting and also [the] rarest of the fashion collections so characteristic of the early 19th century" (Colas 814). 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, which add salt to the scene: "le prétexte, n'allez pas vous perdre, elle est prête à cueillir, il ne m'a pas vu, etc." A very good copy, bound in the imitation of an early 19th-century binding.