London, William Sams, (c. 1825). (No date but 2 plates with the watermark 1825).
Large 4to [366 x 260 mm], (2) bl.ll., (22) ff., (2) bl.ll. and 21 engraved and coloured plates.
Bound in full blue morocco, triple gilt fillet on covers, spine ribbed, inner gilt border, edges gilt. Binding signed Zaehnsdorf.
A superb collection of aquatints depicting scenes from the streets of Paris in the first quarter of the 19th century.
Abbey, Travel, 113-114 ; Tooley, 443-444 ; Colas, Bibliographie du costume et de la mode, 2898.
The plates of this collection had already been published in 1824 in the work entitled “Tour of Paris”. The present undated edition is much sought-after as it is the first one to present the plates vertically.
The very interesting 21 hand-coloured aquatints show the Parisians’ everyday life under the Restoration.
Each plate comes with a detailed explanatory text. The subjects of the plates are varied: « The voitures of Versailles », « The blind man of the Pont des Arts », « Dancers on stilts in the Champs-Elysées », « Office of nurses », « Parisians reading the public prints in the garden of the Tuileries », « Chamber of Deputies », « Street characters », « Itinerants on the Boulevards », « The juggler of the Château d’eau », « The flower-market », “The Meridian of the Palais Royal”, “Procession of the Fête-Dieu, Parish Saint Germain L’Auxerrois”, “Promenade of Her Serene Highness the Duchess of Berri”, etc.
A fine copy of this sought-after work printed on large-paper preserved in a blue morocco binding.
The Descamps-Scrive copy was sold for 2100 francs at his sale in May 1925 (n°575).
Provenance: from the collection of William Foyle. Ex libris W.A. Foyle, Beeleigh Abbey on the endleaf.
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