The Charm : A Series of Elegant Colored Groups, With Descriptive Illustrations. This item is unavailable.The Charm : A Series of Elegant Colored Groups, With Descriptive Illustrations

Folio, original decorative, gilt-stamped red cloth covers, recently re-backed with matching red cloth. Chromolithographic half-title, 30 pp., 6 hand-colored lithographs set within chromolithographic borders. CONDITION: Good, head and foot of spine chipped, wear and some splitting along edges of spine, covers rubbed and spotted with some loss to ink in blue medallions at each corner of cover designs, light foxing to contents. A large format work for the gift book trade, combining very fine hand-colored lithographs with elaborate, handsomely printed, chromolithographic borders. The text is a series of romantic stories, each featuring a pair of lovely young women. Each story is accompanied by an illustration picturing its beautifully dressed protagonist striking a sentimental pose. Bennett rightly terms it "the acme of marvellous Victorian workmanship and silly Victorian art." Bennett, p.38. For other color plate books in the genre of fashion and sentiment see Reese, Stamped with a National Character, pages 64-73 and Reese, America Pictured to the Life, pp. 102-103.…