Le Costume Historique. Cinq cent planches, trois cents en couleurs, or et argent, deux cents en camaïeu. Types principaux du vètement et de la parure rapprochés de ceux de l'intérieur de l'habitation dans tous les temps e

by RACINET, Auguste (1825-1893)

Price: $5,250.00
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Paris: Librairie Firmin-Didot, [1876-]1888. 6 volumes, folio. (16 x 11 1/4 inches). One title, one half-title and five section titles printed in red and black. 483 plates on 477 leaves, numbered from 1-500, chromolithographs heightened with silver or gold, or lithographs printed in one or two tints. Contemporary brown half morocco over brown fine grained cloth by Birdsall of Northampton, England, the covers with square rather than the usual triangular cornerpieces, each of these with a triple fillet gilt border with corner decoration and a large central lozenge-shaped tool, the edge of the spine leather where it borders the cloth marked with triple gilt fillets and a decorative roll, the cloth on the covers bordered with a single fillet in blind, the spines in five compartments with triple raised bands, the bands highlighted with gilt tooling and separated by wide gilt fillets, lettered in the second and fourth compartments, the others with an elegant repeat pattern of a sémé formed from a small flowerhead tool and a flower-spray tool, top edge gilt. The very fine Pym copy of this extravagantly illustrated work: a large paper or "grande edition. A subscriber's copy, beautifully bound. The collation of the plates of this excellent set corresponds exactly with the detailed listing given by Colas, with 12 plates on the recto and verso of 6 leaves in vol.I; 88 plates in vol.II; 95 in vol.III; 99 in vol.IV; 94 in vol.V and 97 in vol.VI. The total of 500 plates mentioned on the title is reached because a number of the plates are so-called 'planche-double' and each of these account for two numbers: 25/26, 27/28 in vol.II for example. This important work took twelve years to publish, and was available in two forms: a quarto issue and the present deluxe folio edition. It was Racinet's intention to create both a visual and textual source-work for all those interested in the history of costume: amateurs in the original sense of the word, fine artists, theatrical designers, costumiers and dress designers. His approach was incredibly ambitious, in that he wished to offer a survey that not only covered the costume worn in every geographical region, but also in every era. Not content, he extended the reach of this encyclopedic work to include allied areas of the applied arts: furniture, weaponry, everyday objects, and objets d'art. The results are spectacular, and beautifully presented using chromolithographs, and tinted lithopgraphs of the highest quality with images taken from both historic sources and also contemporary photographs. Each part is preceded by a descriptive essay and a note on the sources used: in the case of the American section n these include Humboldt, Catlin and photographs in the collection of the Muséum de Paris. The general introduction in the first volume is followed by sections dealing with l'Antiquité classique (classical antiquity); le monde en dehors de l'Europe (the world outside Europe); le monde européen (Europe); France et Europe jusqu'au XVIIè siecle (France and Europe to the 17th century); France du XVIIè s au XVIIIè s (17th and 18th century France); France du XVIIIè s aux temps modernes (France in the 18th and 19th centuries); l'Europe des temps modernes par nationalités distinctes' (individual countries of Europe in the 19th century). Borroni 13507; Colas II, 2472; Lipperheide I, Ad52; Vicaire VI, 945-946

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