MONTHS OF THE YEAR - LIÈVRE, Édouard (illustrator). Les Douze Mois, etc. [Twelve Months].

MONTHS OF THE YEAR - LIÈVRE, Édouard (illustrator). Les Douze Mois, etc. [Twelve Months]. Paris; Viginet, rue de Lanery 39. [1865].

Landscape 4to. Original green cloth-backed darker green pebble-grained publisher's cloth with a rococo panel and title lettering in gilt; ff. [13], interleaved with blank guards; with a title-page printed in black, gilt, and russet and 12 delightful lithographs with beautiful and fine original handcolouring , each 100 x 75mm, with wide margins, and titled in the plate; a very good example of a scarce item in outstanding condition with abrasion, and some light shelf-wear, to board edges, rubbing to corners, and cracking to upper hinge (not joint, and remaining sound) but otherwise internally near fine with just mild offsetting to endpapers; scarce indeed in this condition..
First edition. A strikingly produced plate book composed of a series of exquisite handcoloured lithographs featuring children engaged in various adult activities, each representing one of the twelve months of the year. The artwork, printed on fine paper, is handsomely displayed. The young are depicted as artists, peasants, jockeys, train travellers, huntsmen and even staggering drunk from a beer festival. Only 2 copies located online, both on WorldCat (Indiana State and New York Public Library); no additional copies listed on KVK, or appearing on the commercial market at the time of cataloguing.

#2091826