Details about  1855, BALZAC, Contes Drolatiques, rare first gustave DORE ed, 425 illustrations!

Contes drolatiques colligez ez abbayes de Touraine et mis en lumière par le sieur de Balzac pour l'esbattement des pantagruelistes et non aultres
by
Honoré de Balzac

 DETAILS: (Paris): Bureaux de la Société générale de Librairie, 1855. Cinquiesme édition; first illustrated edition. Later papered boards. xxxi, 614, [1]pp. Illustrated with 425 plates and vignettes by Gustav Doré. 8vo (standard sized book). This is quite a heavy item weighing over 1kg with packaging.

CONDITION: Very Good to Good (see table below for details). Some wear to boards. Spine cracking in several places, with crude repair to top, mostly over title label. Hinges cracking. Residue of glue around spine area. A little chipping to fore edge of front endpaper. Some sunning to pages and plates. Light foxing to many pages and plates, slightly heavier to a few. Occasional light dirt to top edge of a few pages. *Photo(s) given of actual book.

CONTENTS: The first edition of this famous collection to have the illustrations by Gustav Doré. We do not know which issue this is, though we can list a few of the issue pointers for you to judge yourselves (page XXI numbered XX; the title "LE JOYEULX CURÉ DE MEUDON" on the illustration on page 326; the number "36" at the bottom corner of page 425, which also includes the address "Rue Racine No IV" in the plate title).

Regardless of issue, this is still an impressive work, filled with 425 illustrations by Doré, including full-page plates and numerous vignettes in the text (including the contents pages as well as the main text). There is light foxing to many of the pages, slightly heavier to a few pages and plates at the margins and along the gutter, but the images are still clear. The binding appears to be later, and is rather worn at the spine. The volume includes its original half title and frontispiece.