Collective: Paris in its splendor, Monuments,... Lot 166

Collective: Paris in its splendor, Monuments, views, historical scenes, descriptions and history. Drawings and lithographs. Paris, Charpentier, 1861-1863. Three volumes. 33 by 48.5 cm. Vintage red half-chagrin, boards decorated with a beautiful gilt frame with the arms of the city of Paris in the center, spines richly decorated with the arms of Paris, and gilt. Corners worn, some rubbing on the edges of the spines, very slight traces of moisture on the boards, a stain on the lower board of volume 2. Scattered foxing, having been kind enough to avoid most of the off-texts, edges darkened. Despite this, an honorable copy, the lithographs having been spared most defects. One of the finest illustrated books on Paris, featuring 38 woodcut vignettes in the text and 100 out-of-text lithographs, by Philippe Benoist, Amout, Bayot, Ciceri, Gaildreau, Fichot, Sabatier, etc. Most of the great writers of the time collaborated on the text, including Prosper Mérimée and Viollet-le-Duc. 100 large-format lithographs, on bistre ground, some enhanced in color, including a plan and the frontispiece title page. Complete. Paris dans sa splendeur is one of the last works to use landscape lithography, which disappeared with the advent of photography. Some of the lithographs in the book are based on photographs, some of them aerial, taken from balloons. Copies of this book became increasingly rare, as the plates were dismantled and sold by the piece.