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Tour Through Paris, A
London: William Sams, [1828]. Item #02694
An Appealing and Underappreciated Color-Plate Book of Paris
SAMS, William. A Tour Through Paris, Illustrated with Twenty-One Coloured Plates, Accompanied with Descriptive Letter-Press. London: William Sams, [n.d., 1828].
[Second edition], identical to the first of 1824 but with subtitle added, and plates in different order. Folio (14 1/4 x 10 7/16 inches; 361 x 265 mm.). Engraved title-page and twenty-one hand-colored aquatint plates with accompanying unpaginated text to each. Plates watermarked 1827 and 1828.
Contemporary quarter crimson straight-grained morocco over marbled boards. Gilt decorated compartments at spine head and tail bookending title in gilt. With the bookplate of Laurence Currie. A fine copy, unusually fresh and clean.
A lively and visually engaging color-plate tour of Paris in the years following the Bourbon Restoration, capturing the city at a moment of renewed cultural confidence and urban vitality. Sams’s plates depict a wide range of Parisian life - street vendors, cafés, interiors, public spaces, and fashionable promenades - rendered with a warmth of color and immediacy that aligns the work with the great tradition of early nineteenth-century urban genre illustration.
Though little is known about William Sams himself, his output demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of aquatint technique and contemporary taste. The strong saturation and careful hand-coloring of the plates place this work firmly alongside the better-known Parisian views issued by Ackermann and his circle. Copies in such fresh condition, particularly in contemporary morocco bindings, are increasingly uncommon.
An appealing and underappreciated Paris book, prized by collectors of color-plate books, city views, and early nineteenth-century Continental travel imagery.
The Plates:
1. Distribution of Wine on the Morning of St. Louis
2. The Voitures of Versailles
3. The Blind Man of the Pont des Arts
4. Dancers on Stilts in the Shams-Elysées
5. Office of Nurses
6. Porters and Fishwomen Revelling Round the Statue of Henry IV
7. Interior of a Swimming School
8. Parisians Reading the Public Prints in the Garden of the Tuilleries
9. The Catacombs
10. Chamber of Deputies
11. Street Characters
12. Itinerants on the Boulevards
13. Military Degradation
14. The Juggler of the Chateau d'Eau
15. La Morgue
16. The Flower-Market
17. The Meridian of the Palais Royal
18. The Charcoal Porters
19. Procession of the Fete-Dieu
20. A Corps de Garde of the Garde Nationale
21. Promenade of Her Serene Highness the Duchess of Berri...
Abbey, Travel, 114. Colas, 2898. Lipperheide, 1187. Tooley, 444.
Price: $5,500.00