[Rarebooks] fa: VIOLLET-LE-DUC - DICTIONNAIRE RAISONNE DE MOBILIER FRANCAIS - 6 vols. 1868-75 (Furniture, Costume, Armor, Jewelry, &c.)

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, January 31. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/jd7vk5m

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain

Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc: Dictionnaire Raisonne de Mobilier Francais de l'Epoque Carlovingienne a la Renaissance. Paris: A. Morel, 1868-1875. Six volumes, 8vo (25 cm), bound in quarter crimson morocco and marbled boards, spines with raised bands, lettered in gilt, top page edges gilt, marbled endpapers, silk ribbon markers; 443, 536, 479, 505, 499, 491 pp.; illustrated in black&white and color. Original printed wraps bound into each volume.

Complete in six volumes, Viollet-le-Duc's monumental study of the applied arts in France from Medieval times through the Renaissance, with literally thousands of illustrations, including many stunning color chromolithographs as well as black&white woodcuts and steel-engraved plates. Contrary to what the title suggests, the work covers far more than just furniture, with lengthy sections or entire volumes devoted to  arms and armor, clothing, court costume and religious dress, jewelry, ceramics, etc. Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879) was an architect as well as an antiquary, and a pioneer in the field of restoring and preserving the  past. He himself was responsible for the restoration of Carcasonne, Reims Cathedral and other historic French sites.

Bindings with some modest rubbing, light wear to the corners and edges; contents with intermittent scattered foxing and spotting throughout, as usual; last leaf of vol. VI bound out of order but present; one rear (blank) endpaper creased and coming loose at the gutter; else generally clean and sound, firmly and handsomely bound.