Costumi civili e militari della monarchia francese dal 1200 sino al 1820: Civilian and military costumes of the French monarchy from 1200 to 1820

Complete suite of 380 fashion plates covering six centuries of French costume by the artist Hippolyte Lecomte.

With lithographed title page in Volume 1 (Pl. 1), and 379 finely handcoloured plates of French male and female fashion from 1230 to 1820 in three volumes.

Volume 1 with plates 1 to 127, 1230 to 1572.
Volume 2 with plates 128 to 254, 1572 to 1723.
Volume 3 with plates 255 to 380, 1723 to 1820.

First Italian edition with the plates newly lithographed by Lorenzo Bianchi and Domenico Cuciniello. The handcolouring is regarded as superior to the original French edition Costumes civils et militaires de la monarchie française, Delpech, Paris 1820.

This extensive and important collection testifies to the keen interest in the history of the kingdom of France during the period of the Bourbon Restoration. The plates document the history of French clothes from about 1230 to 1820. Civilian clothes of all social classes are shown together with military uniforms, starting with medieval crusaders in armour and ending with gaudy Napoleonic uniforms.

Many of the illustrations depict famous historical figures, with fine portraits of kings, queens, knights, mistresses, poets, generals, politicians, etc. Among the most notable are King Francis I, his mistresses the Duchess of Etampes and La Belle Ferronniere, holy warrior Joan of Arc, writers and poets Francois Malherbe, Antoinette Deshoulières, Rabelais, Corneille, La Fontaine and Clement Marot, architect Philibert de l'Orme, Cardinal Richelieu, King Henry II, his mistress Diane of Poitiers, his killer Jacques Clement, Louis XIV the Sun King and Maria Theresa of Spain, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, Napoleon and Josephine. There are even fictional characters such as Gerart and Euriant from the Roman de Gerard de Nevers, 1440.

Volume 3 has many examples of costumes from the French Revolution, Directory, Consulate, and Empire, including three portraits of Napoleon himself, and finally the Bourbon Restoration. The fashions include rustic shepherdesses, fops and dandies, Merveilleuses and Incroyables, and even the uniform designed by the artist Jacques-Louis David for students at the Revolutionary military academy, l'Ecole de Mars.

"One of the first important books produced using the new process of lithography." (Benezit)

Hippolyte Lecomte (1781-1857) was a French painter best known for large-scale historical paintings, ballet designs and costume plates. His wife, Camille Vernet (1788-1858), was the daughter of the famous painter and fashion-plate illustrator Carle Vernet (1758-1835). He also illustrated Costumes de differentes nations (1817), Fables choisies de la Fontaine (1818), Voyage dans le Levant (1819), Recueil des costumes de theatre (1820s), and Colonne francaise (1820s).

Three volumes in brown cloth spines with red leather title labels in gilt, boards scuffed and battered, interior mostly fresh and clean with sharp lithographic plates in vivid hand-colour, a very few with water stains or finger smudges outside the plate-mark.