Descrizione

Large 8vo. 2 vols. (4), 339, (5) pp. (4),324 (2) pp. With 2 hand-coloured frontispieces, 52 steel engravings, of which 50 hand-coloured, by Ch. Geoffroy after Grandville and numerous wood-engraved vignettes in the text. Dark green buckram, gilt spine with raised bands and title lettered in gold, boards blindstamped. All edges gilt. Attractive edition of a well-known and popular work by the French caricaturist Jean-Ignace-Isidore Grandville (1803-47) in which flowers are depicted as women. Some pages with musical scores. Volume 1 includes a plate with "Tabac" (opposite p. 69), and volume 2 a plate with "Thé et café" (opposite p. 125). Although unmarked, this copy is from the library of Maximilian Joseph, Duke in Bavaria (1808-88), lover of books and horses and father of Elisabeth, Empress of Austria ("Sisi", 1837-98). - Some waterstaining and foxing; stamp of "Marie Therese" on endpaper. A good set of a charming colour plate book illustrated with anthropomorphic flower representations. - Vicaire III, 133. Brivois 147. Sander 215. Carteret III, 286.