104 - THE FRENCH AS THEY SEE THEMSELVES. 19th-Century Moral Encyclopedia (eight volumes—five for Paris, three for the provinces) *Le Prisme* (one volume). Paris, Curmer, 1840–42. Set of nine large 8vo volumes, green half-shagreen, corners intact, spine with decorated raised bands, untrimmed (contemporary binding).

THE FRENCH AS THEY SEE THEMSELVES. 19th-Century Moral Encyclopedia (eight volumes—five for Paris, three for the provinces) *Le Prisme* (one volume). Paris, Curmer, 1840–42. Set of nine large 8vo volumes, green half-shagreen, corners intact, spine with decorated raised bands, untrimmed (contemporary binding). First printing of this remarkable edition. A steel-engraved portrait of Napoleon and eight frontispieces, 406 plates, one color map, and approximately 1,500 vignettes in the text, all woodcuts based on drawings by Gavarni, Eugène Lami, Grandville, Tony Johannot, Daumier, Henri Monnier, Meissonier, etc. The “most important publication of the Curmer editions” (Carteret, pp. 245–250) and one of the major works of the Romantic era. Contributors to the text included Balzac, Jules Janin, E. de la Bédolière, Alphonse Karr, Soulié, Charles Nodier, Gozlan, and others. A COPY OF EXCEPTIONAL QUALITY, absolutely complete, containing all the inset illustrations in their original gummed color prints, untrimmed, in a charming Romantic-style binding. (Slight foxing on a few folios.) From the Henri Beraldi library, described as follows by Mr. Beraldi in “Estampes et Livres” (No. 279): “The large plates feature the original coloration, half-morocco binding, untrimmed (Mr. Beraldi attributes this binding to Dewatines, although it is unsigned). Illustrated with nearly two thousand woodcuts. Two thousand illustrations in a single volume! And this is the 18th century, which is still referred to as the “Century of the Vignette”—let’s leave that title to it—but let’s call the 19th century the “Century of Illustration.” The development of illustration during that period was indeed prodigious.” This fine copy, having been preserved by the family, does not appear in the auction catalogs, but it bears the bookplate of Mr. André Beraldi, his son, and its description in the work cited above attests to its provenance. We should add that Dewatines is cited by Devauchelle in *La Reliure en France* (vol. III, p. 257) as having been established in Lille from 1838 to 1855.