Costumes Militaires Français by Noirmont, Mrs. Dunoyer de and Alfred de Marbot, both authors and artists. Lithography by Andre and Gustave David - 1860

Paris and London, respectively : Clément; E. Gambart, 1860. First edition. Quarter Morocco. Marbled boards. Near Fine. A gorgeous, sweeping collection of historic French military costume plates, as comprehensive as imaginable, spanning 1439 to 1815, or from the Renaissance to Waterloo. Folio, 45 by 33.5 cm. 450 hand-colored plates in all. Vol. 1: 100 pp, hand-colored plates numbered 1 to115. Vol. 2: 48 pp. Plates numbered 116 to 300. Vol. 3: 58 pp. Plates numbered 1 to 150. The illustrations are generally not static, dull costume plates but rather, the artist usually shows the soldiers in engaged in some activity, and so the illustrations also document the military lifestyle of the day depicted. Many of these plates, thus, can be viewed as genre or action pictures, and their large size contributes to their visual excitement as well. Condition: some light foxing on the text pages. Plate leaves have light age toning along edges but are otherwise very clean, fresh, bright. Morocco spines with a few minor scuffs and rubbing. Bindings are overall solid and attractive. Note that the set is extremely heavy -- about 37 or 38 lbs. -- and so shipping is bound to cost extra (more than the number produced by the standard shipping template on Internet sites).