Description: Pictorial album 29.7 x 24 cm, bound in ¾ red morocco over marbled boards with gilt lettering “LA BIBLIOTHÈQUE DES ROMANS” and raised bands to spine; marbled endpapers, two flyleaves, tan original wrapper lettered “La Bibliothèque des Romans. (gothic, arch) | {colour vignette} | UNE VEILLÉE DE JEUNE FILLE. | 1840. || Six hand-coloured lithographs, each in a double-rule border with the series title above it and image title below. Sequential numbers are hand-inscribed within the border in the upper-right corner. Frame 23.5 x 18.3 cm, image 21.5 x 16.5 cm. Three flyleaves at the end. A bookplate to front pastedown: “GERARD NORDMANN EX-LIBRIS”.

Content:

1. Front wrapper (title-page)
2. SŒUR ANNE (Sister Anne)
3. LA GRISETTE (The grisette)
4. LÉONIDE OU LA VIEILLE DE SURÊNE (Léonide or the old lady of Surêne)
5. LA PUCELLE DE BELLEVILLE (The maid of Belleville)
6. MON VOISIN RAYMOND (My neighbor Raymond)
7. LE COCU (The cuckold)

Catalogue raisonné: Nordmann/Christie’s (I) № 127, p. 86 (Lithographic title and 6 erotic plates, in the Romantic style of Achille Devéria. Original pictorial front wrapper preserved)

Provenance: Gérard Nordmann (French, 1930 – 1992).

Achille Jacques-Jean-Marie Devéria (French, 1800 – 1857).