FRENCH PAINTS BY THEMSELVES (Les). Moral encyclopaedia of the nineteenth century. - Province. - Le Prisme. Paris, Curmer, 1840-1842. 9 volumes large in-8, fawn half-calf, threaded spine, blue title and tomaison, combed edges (period binding). First edition of one of the most ambitious Romantic publications. This famous collective work published by Léon Curmer contains texts by the greatest writers of the time, including Balzac, Gautier, Dumas, Nerval, Janin, Karr, Méry, Soulié, Petrus Borel and Nodier. Colossal woodcut illustration after Daumier, Daubigny, Gavarni, Grandville, Johannot, Charlet and others, including 8 black title-frontispices, 408 plates of Parisian and provincial types, around 1500 vignettes in the text and a double-page coloured map. Le Prisme is decorated with vignettes in the text by the same artists. An attractive copy with all the hors-texte carefully coloured and gummed at the time. Minor damage to one of the headpieces of Le Prisme, minor rubbing, scattered light foxing. Carteret, III, 245 - Vicaire, III, 794.