A Sumptuous Production with Exquisite Color Plates
Une Femme de Qualité au Siècle Passé. Forty two leaves hinged into 5 protective folders of 8 exquisite color plates, plus 2 introductory plates (Half-title and frontispiece). VOLUME 1 of 2 ONLY.
Paris: Jean Bouffod, Manzi, Joyant, n.d. [late 19th Century].
Price: $750.00
About the item
Leloir, Maurice. One of 200 copies. 1 vols. Folio, 21 x 16 x 3 inches. A Sumptuous Production with Exquisite Color Plates. Original full beige morocco portfolio, elaborately lettered and decorated in gilt and blind, extremities a little rubbed and lacking ties; contents fine.
Item #9400
A superb portfolio of 42 color plates, exquisitely printed by this publisher famous for their work, depicting the glittering world of the pre-revolutionary French aristocracy through the day's activities of “a woman of quality”. The work consists of five separate paper portfolios, or “chapters”, each with a pictorial title, frontispiece, and six pages of framed short texts surrounded by lavish watercolor vignettes. This monumental production is the work of one of France's most honored watercolorists and painters, Maurice Leloir [1853-1940] who gained an early reputation for the brilliance of his work, and who made important contributions to the history of costume design. In this book, Leloir's matchless watercolors have been color-printed with such astonishing fidelity that only the closest examination distinguishes them from hand-colored prints. A significant work of enormous elegance and charm.
