Paris et ses environs: Promenades pittoresques.

Paris: Louis Janet; printed by Jules Didot , [1827]. Boards. Fine. 18mo (14cm); vi, 212 pages, hand-colored engraved title page and 10 hand-colored engraved plates. Wove stock. About fine in original decorated boards (showing the Panthéon within a sculptural scroll surround) and original cardboard slipcase. Some shelf wear to slipcase, small blemish on upper board, and the stock has darkened slightly, else fine and extremely rare in such condition with slipcase present.

References: Vicaire, 480; Quérard, 476; Bibliographie de la France, 7477; Bibliothéque de feu M. Louis Van Gobbelschroy #1460 ("Rare...").

A sweetly illustrated account of Paris during the Bourbon Restoration, when the Champs-Élysées was lined with saplings, and the Arc de Triomphe was unfinished. The engraved scenes charm with fine detail and attractive hand-coloring. The author and date of publication are not given, but bibliographers agreed early on to attribute the text to Charles Malo, the polymath who was Louis Janet's writer-in-residence. We have no information about the artist or engraver, who were probably contracted to the printer, Jules Didot. Janet issued a trade edition with uncolored plates, and a very limited deluxe edition with the plates colored by hand. We follow the lead of several c19 French bibliographers in cataloguing the book as an 18mo, with gatherings in sixes. The volume is in ace condition with the nearly unobtainable original slipcase.