RAOUL-ROCHETTE (Désiré), GOLBERY (Marie Philippe de), VILLENEUVE (Louis Jules Frédéric), ENGELMANN (Godefroy) and SAZERAC (Hilaire Léon). Letters on Switzerland accompanied by views drawn from nature & lithographed by Villeneuve. First part: Bernese Oberland (1823). Second part: Ancien Évêché de Bâle (1824). Third part: Lake of the Four Cantons (1826). Fourth part: Lake Geneva, Chamouny and the Valais (1827). Fifth part: The Simplon route (1832). Paris, G. Engelmann, 1823-1832. 5 vol. in-folio, bound in half red basane, richly decorated ribbed spines, title and appendix on spine, boards covered with red morocco paper, marbled endpapers (uniform period bindings). The original edition is complete with everything that has appeared. Illustrated with 4 title vignettes, 112 hors-texte plates drawn by Villeneuve and lithographed in black by Engelmann (24 in part one, 16 plates in part two, 24 plates in part three, 24 plates in part four and 24 plates in part five), and vignettes in the text. Important descriptive work of Switzerland, mainly the Alps, including the Chamonix valley in Savoy, in a very fine binding, magnificently illustrated. The texts of the first part are by Sazerac, those of the second and third parts by Raoul-Rochette and those of the fourth part by Golbery. A superb copy, virtually free of foxing (only scattered foxing in volume II and on 2 plates in volume IV). Louis Jules Frédéric Villeneuve (Paris 1796 - 1842), who drew the views, was a pupil of Regnault. He also contributed to Nodier's France pittoresque, and published numerous views of Italy. Godefroy Engelmann (Mulhouse 1788 - 1839) was also a pupil of Regnault; he introduced lithography to France in 1816, and was at the origin of the chromolithography process, which he perfected with his son Godefroy II in 1837. Hilaire Léon Sazerac, from Angoulême, was a French man of letters who published many Keepsakes (L'écrin d'une Reine, Les glanes, Heures de récréation, La siesta, Veillées d'hiver). Marie Philippe Aimé de Golbéry (Colmar 1786 - Kientzheim 1854) was a member of parliament for Alsace under Louis-Philippe, from 1834 to 1848, and published numerous works on history, archaeology and literature; he also wrote a Histoire et description de la Suisse et du Tyrol. A monumental work, rarely complete (separate volumes are sometimes found) and much sought after for its illustrations. Perret [3933] - Regards sur les Alpes n°44 - Waeber I, 60 - Barth 17641 - Brunet V, 1241 - Coolidge 102