Folies Gauloises depuis les Romaines jusqu'a nos Jours

1852. DORÉ, Gustave. Folies Gauloises depuis les Romains jusqu'à nos Jours. 20 lithographs by Doré. Oblong folio, 335 x 260 mm., bound in contemporary half morocco with the original green printed wrappers preserved. Paris: Au Bureau du Journal Amusant, [1852 or 1859]. First edition of this "dazzling survey of French manners and costume through the ages, the last of Doré's albums. It is marked by a solidity of conception and a sophistication of outlook to which he hardly aspired in his earlier collections of lithographs" (Ray). Each lithograph represents a distinct period in French history, beginning with the barbarian hordes (Gauls) observing a human sacrifice, then proceeding to a thirteenth-century Inquisition, a fifteenth-century tournament, a festival during the reign of Henri III, the premiere performance of a 1695 drama by Racine, the "edifices" of fashionable women's wigs in the court of Louis XVI, a harp recital in 1810, and finally ending with the Romanticism of 1830 and 1840. These illustrations typify Doré's vivid and witty imagination. The date of Les Folies Gauloises has been assigned both to "1852" (by Annie Rononciat) and "1859" (by Leblanc and Malan). Malan adds that the work has become rare "as most copies were long ago taken apart to sell as lithographs separately." A fine copy of this rare and important book. Ray, French, 245. Beraldi, VI, p. 29. Malan, Gustave Doré, p. 35. Renonciat, La Vie et l'Oeuvre de Gustave Doré, p. 46-47. Leblanc, p. 115.