BALZAC (Honoré de). Œuvres complètes. Paris, Furne, Dubochet - Lot 163

BALZAC (Honoré de). Œuvres complètes. Paris, Furne, Dubochet, Hetzel et Paulin, 1842-1848and Houssiaux, 1855. 20 volumes containing 149 of 154 figures and an album of 121 engravings, in-8, cherry glazed half-calf, spine decorated (Period binding). First collective and first illustrated edition, partly original. It includes nine first edition texts, including Albert Savarus, La Fausse maîtresse, part of Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes, the last part of Illusions perdues, etc., and a new version of La Comédie humaine revised and reworked by Balzac himself. But it's also the first edition to be illustrated, by the finest artists: a portrait of Balzac, a frontispiece, and 154 first-edition hors-texte figures by Daumier, Nanteuil, Monnier, Gavarni,Meissonier, Bertall, Johannot, etc. The copy includes an additional album of 120 plates, bound in a twenty-first volume in uniform binding. A strictly period-bound copy in a uniform binding, the three 1855 volumes and the album presenting slight differences. It bears the bookplate of François Guizot, the famous statesman, with his motto Je lui dois tout. The album has a restored split spine.