Racinet, M ABiblio.com
Racinet, Albert Charles AugusteBiblio.com
Le Costume Historique 6 volumes Elephant Folio edition
1888001135Paris: Firmin-Didot et Cie 1888. 1st Edition. Half Morocco. Fine. Elephant Folio - over 15. This is the much less common folio version of this work with each of 6 volumes measuring 16.5 by 12.5 inches or 42 by 32 cm. With 500 plates 300 using color chromolithography. This copy is about as as good as it gets. Modern half morocco over green boards is pristine. Five thick raised bands on each spine with gilt lettered labels. Traditional Victorian endpapers. All bindings are tight. Interiors are about as clean as can be notwithstanding the most occasional and lightest of speck. This is one of the most elaborate and detailed costume books ever produced if not the single most ambitious such work. It is still an invaluable reference but it functions fabulously well simply as visual entertainment and the plates contained herein have found their ways to many a print shop where they have been framed and later hung on walls as decoration. As not uncommon among costume books Racinet also serves up a healthy helping of accessories and interiors throughout the ages. Like Racinet's other masterpiece "L'Ornement Polychrome" the chromolithography of this work is exceptionally brilliant. Firmin-Didot et Cie unknown
