131 - Count Alexandre de LABORDE. [The Monuments of France, Arranged Chronologically and Considered in Light of Historical Facts and the Study of the Arts]. Paris, Didot, 1816–1836, 2 in-plano volumes, red half-shagreen, spine with 5 decorated raised bands (contemporary binding).

Count Alexandre de LABORDE. [The Monuments of France, Arranged Chronologically and Considered in Light of Historical Facts and the Study of the Arts]. Paris, Didot, 1816–1836, 2 in-plano volumes, red half-shagreen, spine with 5 decorated raised bands (contemporary binding). Avery, 546 / Brunet, III-714 / Vicaire, IV-749. A magnificent publication devoted to French monuments, published in 45 installments, each containing 6 plates with an explanatory text leaflet. A note in the 38th installment specifies that the work had originally been planned as thirty-six installments, including three of text, but that the number was increased to forty-five, which will form three volumes. We present the first two volumes, comprising the first 38 installments; Volume I includes a half-title page, a title page (missing here), 6 pages of a Preliminary Discourse, a frontispiece, and installments 1 through 19; and for Volume II, a half-title page, a title page, and a page of a Preface (these 3 pages are missing here), and installments 20 through 38. Twelve additional plates were bound at the end without issue sheets. In total, the copy therefore contains 240 plates (out of 260), including the frontispiece included in the first installment and 22 double-page plates, engraved on copper by Piringer, Baltard, Rousseau..., featuring more than 300 subjects, based on works by Bance, Bourgeois, Vauxelles, and others… This copy includes the half-title page and the Preliminary Discourse in their first state.