WITH 15 HAND-COLORED PORTRAITS OF THE WOMEN OF NAPOLEON'S COURT AND EMPIRE

(NAPOLEON) GOODRICH, Frank B. The Court of Napoleon, or Society under the First Empire with Portraits of its Beauties Wits and Heroines. New York: Derby & Jackson, 1857. Quarto, publisher's deluxe full brown blind-stamped morocco, raised bands, all edges gilt. $1500.

First edition, with lithographed extra title page, frontispiece, and 14 lovely lithographed portraits by Jules Champagne—all finely hand-colored—of the most prominent women in Napoleon's court, in handsome publisher's blind-tooled morocco.

Goodrich's survey covers the women of the Revolution, the "furies of the scaffold," society under the Terror and the Directory, the "revival of manners" under Napoleon, the creation of the Legion of Honor, the Imperial household, the state of literature, the press, science, painting, and drama under Napoleon's rule, Napoleon's early loves, and his manner toward women. The women featured in the lovely hand-colored lithographs include Joséphine, Charlotte Corday, Madame Junot, Madame Récamier, Pauline Bonaparte, Caroline Bonaparte, Madame de Staël, among others.

Text and plates clean; publisher’s morocco with expert restoration. An exceptionally good copy.