AUVERT, Alexandre (d. 1865)

This work was issued in livraisons with 5 plates with text in each. A complete set consists of 24 livraisons distributed in four portfolios, of which this copy lacks the fourth part or portfolio. The price was 20 Fr for each livraison and 480 Fr for a complete set. The colour engravings are printed by Rémond and a few by Geny-gros, most of which are engraved by Oudet, and a few by Annedouche and Forget after the drawings (ad nat del) by Schtschegoleff in Moscow. Goldschmid considers this very rare atlas to be one of the best and most beautiful of all illustrated works of its kind. ”Wir haben schon eingangs erwähnt, dass wir dieses Werk für eines des besten und schönsten in unserem ganzen gebiet halten und bedauern nur, dass es so selten ist. Es ist uns nicht geglückt, mehr als ein einziges Exemplar zu Gesicht zu bekommen.” (Goldschmid) When finished, the complete work was apparently bound in two volumes with the date 1856 on the title page. It then also has a lithographed dedication to Czar Nikolaus I. That 1856 edition is sometimes called the second edition, while the first 90 plates were issued, as here, in three portfolios in 1848-1851. Auvert was born in Moscow to a Parisian family forced into exile. He became a doctor of medicine and surgery, a professor at the University of Moscow and an imperial privy councillor to the court of the Czar. The atlas contains striking pictures from the entire field of pathology but in these three portfolios mosly tumors iof the head and face.

Collation: Pars I: pp (4) half-title, title, (4) Proemium. 30 plates numbered I-XXX each with accompanying text-leaves. Pars II: 30 plates numered XXXI-LX, each with accompanying text-leaves. Pars III: 30 plates numbered LXI-XC each with accompanying text leaves. Together 90 engraved plates printed in colour and finished by hand.

Binding: Three parts in the original printed portfolios, uncut.

References: Goldschmid pp 187-188; Ehring, pp 206-207; Zeis, 468, 626, 939 and 1177.Simon Finch 61 (2004)