[LEPERE]. Les Minutes Parisiennes. - Lot 35

[LEPERE]. Les Minutes Parisiennes. Very rare collection of five suites of this woodcut apology devoted to the city of Paris and its inhabitants at the turn of the twentieth century. Housed in a luxuriously bound slipcase. Circa 1899. Five suites in one quarto volume (305 x220 mm), leaves in marbled cardboard folder with eggplant morocco title vignette in gilt lettering on the first cover. All in a cardboard slipcase and slipcase bound in blue half-maroquin with corners, spine ribbed and decorated with gilt fillets, title "Minutes Parisiennes - Collection de Fumés". Marbled paper boards and edges. Title, 33 pl.; title, 31 pl.; title, 48 pl.; title, 39 pl.; title, 44 pl. Spine slightly shaded, discrete rubbing to spines and corners. Hardback case detached with two edges missing. Some rare foxing. First edition, before the letter, in quarto format on China paper. The edition is limited to only 10 copies (according to a handwritten note in pencil on the flyleaf of the first volume). The engravings in these suites were created for the sought-after publication "Les Minutes Parisiennes" by wood engravers Tony Beltrand (1847-1904), his brother Jacques (1874-1977) and Eugène Dété (1848-1922), published by Ollendorff in 11 in-8 volumes (1899-1904). For the publishers, this publication was a battle to defend the use of real woodcuts against the new reproduction processes that were gaining ground at the time, notably photography and photogravure. Each volume therefore contains "true and picturesque drawings, images that are frank, sharp and legible, executed with the clear intention of reacting against engravings that imitate the processes" (pp. 10-11 volume 1). Each issue focuses on a different time of day, so this collection includes the head of the series: -LEPERE (Auguste). Midi, [Le déjeuner des petites ouvrières], by G. Montorgueil. -HUARD(Charles).Une heure. [La bourse], by Gabriel Mourey. -LEPERE (Auguste). Two hours, [La cité et l'Île Saint-Louis], by Gustave Geffroy. -GÉRARDIN (Auguste). Trois heurs. [Le grand prix de Paris], by Leon Millot. -SUNYER (Joaquim). Five o'clock [La rue du croissant], by Henry Fèvre. Bibliophile's copy.