Le Musée pour rire,

Paris: Chez Aubert, 1839-40. First edition. 27 cm; 3 volumes in two. 150 lithographs, including 45 by Daumier (among them 27 from "Croquis d'expression") and 42 by Gavarni. Half titles present. Plates not colored in. Bound in recent green crushed morocco over marbled boards, ruled in gilt; spines titled in gilt. Marbled edges. Endleaves foxed; some scattered toning. Overall a clean copy. References: Ray, #164 ("one of the freshest and most attractive of romantic illustrated books"); Carteret III, 426-27.


The great Parisian caricaturists of the mid-19th-century: Daumier, Gavarni, Grandville, Travies, and others, represented with original lithographs illustrating short prose pieces by Alhoy, Huart, and Philipon.