Ville de Paris: Commission Municipale du Vieux Paris

Paris: Commission Municipale du Vieux Paris. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 4to 11" - 13" tall. Dealer stamp, neatly affixed inside flap of first volume. 21 volumes of a once annual publication now scarcely available to the trade in any but odd volumes, Ville de Paris: Commission Municipale du Vieux Paris. Published by the government printer in Paris beginning in 1898, final volume being from 1937 (though spine says 1931), handsomely rebound in tall quarto format, featuring marbled paper over boards, marbled paper paste-downs, leather spines (rubbed), gilt-tooled titles on spines, with five raised bands and four decorative flower illustrations to each spine. Pages toned a bit and sunned along the edges, some scuffing to tips, rubbing to some but not all raised bands, else clean and unmarked of interior; not ex-library; inaugural volume has what appears to be the remains of a former price sticker for the entirety. Many hundreds of illustrations, black-and-white photographs, line drawings, sepia tone portraits, architectural and the like. Multitudinous fold-out maps and architectural plans. Else and withal, a range of volumes that look lovely on the shelf where they stand as tall, slender, solid, stolid tanks. French language texts.Bound in Havana-spun half-morocco bindings, ribbed spine adorned with gilt roulette, boxes framed with small gilt irons, approx. 250 pp. by volume, each illustrated with inset photographs reproduced in heliogravure and folded plans. The remit began in 1897 in Paris, France at the behest of the head of the Commission du Vieux at the time, Alfred Lamouroux, basically being commissioned to research and present the history of Paris, France, its cultural and architectural heritage and eventually the origins and development of the Metro. The commission retained a small army of photographers, researchers and artists, and their work is presented in great and fine detail, relying upon the work of historians and architectural historians such as Charles Sellier, Lenôtre, Lucien Lambeau, Marcel Poëte, Maurice Dumolin, Louis Bonnier, and Marius Barroux. The Commission was established by decree of December 18, 1897 taken by the prefect of the Seine Justin Germain Casimir de Selves, on the proposal of Alfred Lamouroux tabled on November 15 previous in City Council, says a Wikipedia entry thereabout. The Commission paid particular attention to the preservation and enhancement of buildings, sites and neighborhoods in Paris as well as archaeological remains. Rivers, restaurants, creeks, public markets, canals, salons, ponds, apartments, quarries, churches, and gravel pits--they're all here. What do you wish to know? How many Barons and Baronesses lived along the Rue de Baries? The square acreage of private property? When the chapel of Lauzon was founded? The sources of the freshest water? What a library looks like after being bombed?The collection comprises volumes from 1898-1906, 1908-1912, 1914-1915, 1923, 1926, 1927, 1930-1931.Member, I.O.B.A., C.B.A., and adherent to the highest ethical standards. Additional postage may be required for oversize or especially heavy volumes, and for sets.