Galerie Contemporaine littéraire et artistique. [Paris: Ludovic Baschet Publisher, 1876-1884]. Nine volumes, quarter blue leather, cloth boards. 13 1/4 x 10 1/4 inches (34 x 26 cm); various paginations, with 119 large format Woodburytypes after Nadar, Carjat and others on printed card mounts by Goupil, as well as medallion portraits of artists on paper mounts, and many reproductions of artworks by these artists; all plates on linen guards. Bindings with some wear but generally sound, title pages not bound in, some plates detached from the guards, a few edges bruised, minor foxing to text. Sold as a periodical, not subject to return.

This is one of the foremost photographically illustrated books of the era, with superb images that include portraits of Baudelaire, Rossini, Clemenceau, Daudet, Hugo etc. by Carjat and portraits of Edmond de Goncourt, Ferdinand de Lesseps, Baron Taylor, Georges Sand, Gounod and others by Nadar. Though the plates give the appearance of photographs, they are continuous-tone photomechanical reproductions taken from the original wet-collodion-on-glass negatives. Issued as a weekly publication, the collation is complex and somewhat variable.