GRAND MODERN PAINTINGS A COLLECTION OF ONE HUNDRED PHOTOGRAVURES FAC-SIMILES OF THE MOST FAMOUS PAINTINGS OF EUROPE

GRAND MODERN PAINTINGS A COLLECTION OF ONE HUNDRED PHOTOGRAVURES FAC-SIMILES OF THE MOST FAMOUS PAINTINGS OF EUROPE, Haskell, 1888, first edition, 2 volumes measuring approximately 19 inches by 14 inches each, light wear to the corner tips, else just about fine in sumptuous full leather binding with blank stamped decoration to the outer margins of the front and back covers, raised and gold-gilt decorated spine, marbled end-papers with gold gilt tooling around the inner dentelles and all edges in gold-gilt as well. The 100 photogravures are on tipped-in tissue plates !!! The first volume is dated 1888, the second 1890 and the preface from which we now quote from the first volume is dated 1891. "It has been the object of the publishers to present the great works of the leading artists of all nations with which art has become a serious and legitimate product of taste and genius. Special prominence is given in this volume to the study of those schools which are less known in modern art, in order that a wider understanding of the artistic development of the present may be understood." Allen goes on to state...."within this volume, for the first time, the Russian art sense is made known to the public in a complete and satisfactory form. Another special feature of these volumes is the presentation of the great military paintings of the last two decades." All in all, a wonderful treasury of European art which today appears very seldom on the market place as the sum of its parts is apparently worth more than the whole, if you know what I mean---