“THE SUNSHINE OF PURE IMAGINATION”
PERRAULT, Charles (DESANDRE, Jules-Marie, illustrator). Les Contes de Perrault. Paris, circa 1855.
Very rare mid-19th-century French illustrated edition of "the basis for the modern canon of fairy tales," with engraved frontispiece and 11 engraved plates by Lefrancq after Desandré, numerous in-text wood-engraved vignettes, and wood-engraved borders on every page. This is copy number 5 of only ten copies on Vergé paper, with two states of the full-page engravings, one of each a mounted proof before letters on Chine. $8800.
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