First issue of this rare series of contemporary coloured lithographs illustrating Perrault’s Contes. They are the work of one of Girodet’s students.

« Extremely rare set of 12 superb coloured lithographs by H. Lecomte, with lithographed captions […]. Hyacinthe Lecomte who was born in Nice in 1797 and died in Paris in 1858, was Girodet’s student.» (Gumuchian, Les livres de l’enfance, 4426).

« Hyacinthe Aubry-Lecomte is a French drawer and lithographer born in Nice in 1797, from French parents, who died in Paris in May 1858. He came to Paris at the end of the empire and started working in 1816 at the Treasury where he stayed for nine years; at the same time he was following Girodet’s studio and took the examination of the Art School. He exhibited for the first time in 1819, and won several medals in 1824 and 1831, and the Cross of the Legion of Honour in 1849. » (Biographie générale, 30, 233)

A beautiful set of contemporary coloured lithographs illustrating one of the greatest texts of French literature.