THE FRENCH PAINTED BY THEMSELVES. Paris, L. Curmer,... Lot 22

THE FRENCH PAINTED BY THEMSELVES. Paris, L. Curmer, 1840-1841. 9 vol. large in-8, half-brown grief, spines decorated with romantic irons (contemporary binding). First edition, remarkable illustration, in first edition, including 8 frontispieces, an etching portrait of Napoleon, a colour map of France, 406 colour plates and nearly 1500 wood vignettes in the text, after Honoré Daumier, Gavarni, Eugène Lami, Tony Johannot, Grandville, Henry Monnier, Traviès, etc. This publication consists of three parts forming a whole: the first part comprises 5 volumes and is dedicated to the Parisians; the second, 3 volumes, to the Province; the third is entitled Le Prisme. Balzac, Janin, Karr, Nodier, Gautier, Nerval, Gozlan, etc., contributed to this series of portraits of general types of French society in the first half of the 19th century: the grocer, the law student, the duchesses, the doctor, the clerk-traveller, but also the Norman, the Franc-comtois, the coastguard, the whaler, the prisoners, etc., illustrated among others by Gavarni, Meissonier and Daumier. The whole is an exceptional panorama of French society served by the greatest artists of this period. Rare copy with all figures in colour. A few scorched plates, slight traces of humidity on the cover plates of the bindings. (Vicar III, 794. Carteret, III, 245-251).