BOURASSÉ - Lot 201

BOURASSÉ La Touraine Tours, Alfred Mame et Cie, 1856. Folio size, red morocco leather with lace trim, binding lined with green morocco leather and fleur-de-lis motifs, gilt edges (L. Smeers) Half-title page, title page, 610 pp., (1) p., 4 color lithographs mounted on separate sheets (including the frontispiece), 14 plates out of the text engraved on steel after Karl Girardet and Français, 1 map out of the text, and 262 woodcut vignettes in the text The most famous and most beautiful work devoted to Touraine. This book has been unanimously hailed as the masterpiece of typography and illustration of its century. Presented at the 1855 World’s Fair in Paris, it was awarded the Grand Medal of Honor by the international jury. Brunet I, 1174; Taschereau, 17. Carteret, *Le Trésor du bibliophile*, III, 103. Pierre Duchemin, “Abbé Bourassé and Two Monumental Works: *La Touraine, Histoire et Monuments* and *La Sainte Bible*, with illustrations by Gustave Doré,” Mémoires de la Société archéologique de Touraine, LXX, 2013, pp. 73–85. A very fine copy