Les parures. Fantaisie par Gavarni. Texte par Méry. Histoire de la mode par le Cte. Foelix. (Perles et Parures.)

Paris/Leipzig (G. de Gonet/ Charles Twietmeyer), n.d. [1850].. (2), 300pp. Frontispiece and 15 steel engraved plates hors texte, the whole finished by hand in colors, and the plates themselves printed on doilies tipped onto pink guards, the pink visible throughout the elaborately full percaline, elaborately gilt and colored with designs on both covers and spine. 4to. Publisher’s original full percaline, elaborately gilt and colored identically on each companion volume. A.e.g. Tissue guards. Later protective chemise. Together with:   Les joyaux. Fantaisie par Gavarni. Texte par Méry. Minéralogie des dames par Cte. Foelix. (Perles et Parues.) (2), 316pp. Frontispiece and 16 steel-engraved plates hors texte, the whole finished by hand in colors, and the plates printed on doilies in the same format as the foregoing.   “These books contain thirty-two engravings on steel by Geoffroy after Gavarni. They are studies of beautiful women, fashionably attired for the most part, which were drawn in London. Méry wrote the ‘fantasy’ accompanying them to fit Gavarni’s designs...” (Gordon Ray). After mentioning the ordinary edition of the work, Ray proceeds to discuss this “far more appealing...special edition, in which the steel engravings are printed and delicately colored on paper with borders cut to various lace patterns. So presented, Gavarni’s designs became fashion plates of the first order.” Intermittent light foxing, mostly on the tissue guards and not the plates; a very desirable set, the original bindings still brilliant.