76 - [Belgium Royal Family]. CELEBRATION BOOK

[Belgium Royal Family]. CELEBRATION BOOK Ceremonies and Celebrations of the Wedding of His Royal Highness the Duke of Brabant and Her Imperial and Royal Highness Marie-Henriette-Anne, Archduchess of Austria, held in Brussels on August 22, 1853. Brussels, Jules Géruzet, 1853. Folio (53 x 34 cm), (1)-30-(1) pp., including title page, 20 plates, including a coat of arms on the frontispiece and 3 portraits. Brown half-cloth in imitation morocco with corner pieces (binding heavily worn, covers detached, foxing on the first section, a few marginal water stains on pages without damage, a few spots). First edition of this beautiful commemorative book on the marriage of the Crown Prince of Belgium and Archduchess Marie-Henriette of Austria. The illustrations consist of 20 plates, mostly in color, depicting the ceremonies and festivities held in Brussels for the occasion. The book opens with three portraits: Leopold I, King of the Belgians, engraved in black after Winterhalter, depicted full-length; the Duke of Brabant and Archduchess Marie-Henriette-Anne, black-and-white lithographed bust portraits with wash by Cisneros after Tuerlinckx and Shubert. The grand coats of arms of the Duke and Duchess of Brabant, chromolithographed as a frontispiece, followed by the reception at the border and the wedding celebration at the Church of Saints Michael and Gudula. Supplemented by 14 beautiful Italian-style plates, lithographed in black on a tinted background and colored with wash, sometimes with gum highlights. They depict the various floats in the procession, each featuring large coats of arms or allegorical figures engraved above them, based on works by Huart or Hendricks. Jules Géruzet (1817–1874), a print publisher and photographer in Brussels, chronicled events in the kingdom and had his prints produced by Michel Ghislain Stapleaux.