Le Bon Genre: Reimpression du Recueil de 1827 comprenant les "Observations" et les 115 Gravures

Good copy of the 1931 re-issue of this rare suite of engravings

Complete with all 115 plates newly engraved by E. Doisteau, printed by R. Tanburro and hand-coloured in pochoir (stencil) by J. Saude

After the original hand-coloured plates by Georges-Jacques Gatine, Nicolas Schencker and others after designs by artists Horace Vernet, Louis-Marie Lanté, Dominique Bosio, Jean-Baptiste Isabey, Dutailly, etc.

Example No. 490 of a print run of 750 numbered copies and ten copies hors commerce numbered I to X.

The plates were sold individually from 1811, then the first 104 plates were collected and published in a suite with explanatory text in 1817. A second edition was published in 1827 with an additional 11 plates (for a total of 115 plates) with 24 pages of Observations by Pierre de la Mésangère.

The magnificent caricatures depict not only the belles and dandies of the Empire and Restoration eras, but also Parisian public entertainment, street performers, masquerade balls, the latest dance crazes (the waltz, quadrille and sauteuse), horse races at Longchamp, etc. There are ridiculous Incroyables and scandalous Merveilleuses, frumpy English tourists, men in corsets, fashionable games such as badminton and Chinese yo-yo, and numerous scenes of flirtatious kissing games in parks and parlours.

There are several famous entertainers of the era: tightrope performers Pierre Forioso and the Incomparable Ravel, the popular troupe of dancing dogs at the Theatre Montansier (Versailles), Madam Romain at the Cafe de Milles Colonnes, Munito the Wonder Dog, a magic lantern show, a Savoyard puppeteer, Indian sword swallowers, acrobats, musicians and Jacques de Falaise, the man who ate anything! Rollercoasters or so-called Russian Mountains were all the rage, and there are views of the rollercoaster tracks at Belleville, Barriere du Roule and the Salle de l'Odeon.

Original portfolio with green boards, decorative title on front board, lacking one ribbon, some foxing to edges of boards. Interior text and plates with scattered light spotting throughout, some worse than others, but all the pochoir (stencil) engraved plates with neat and vibrant hand-colour. Two plates with 1cm tear outside the plate mark.

A delightful panorama of Napoleonic and Restoration life in Paris.