Recueil des divers costumes des habitans de Bordeaux et des environs. Dessinés d'après nature par ... Galard, et précédés de notices rédigées par ... Géraud

Book Description

Bordeaux: chez Lavigne jeune, [1818-1819]. Small folio. (14 1/8 x 10 inches). Mounted on guards throughout. 1 sugar-paper upper wrapper mounted as a title, 32 hand-coloured engraved plates after Galard. 19th-century red morocco-backed marbled cloth-covered boards, covers blocked in blind, spine in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in gilt in the second and third compartments, original upper and lower wrapper bound in. A fine complete set of this very rare work on the costume and people of the Bordeaux region. The top quality plates picture a mixture characters and classes from market traders, to shepherds, to barge owners, to firemen. Each plate is accompanied by explanatory text that includes notes about where the subjects came from, the history of their town or region, their jobs, their costume: there are two particularly intrigung plates of "Grisettes": the text to the first of these plates of a pretty young girl notes that as a type they are very honest and very hard-working, whilst also noting that a number of them live in a state that is "ni célibat, ni le mariage". This copy is particularly desirable both for its excellent condition, and also because it includes examples of both issues of the wrappers, as outlined by Colas. Colas I, 1153 ("très rare complet"); Hiler p.349; Lipperheide Fe 1 (incomplete set) ; Rahir 435; Vinet 2281.

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