COMPREHENSIVE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE CORSET, LIMITED LARGE FOLIO EDITION

LIBRON, Fernand and CLOUZOT, Henri. Le Corset dans l’Art et les Moeurs du XIIIe au XXe Siècle. Paris: F. Libron, 1933. Large, thick folio (11 by 15 inches), original gilt-lettered cream wrappers, uncut and partially unopened. $1500.

Limited first edition, number 662 of 880 copies, of this erudite history of “the artifices that women employ in order to support and perfect their fragile beauty,” with fashion plates (12 in color), facsimiles and in-text illustrations on nearly every page.

Written some years after the heyday of corsetry by Fernand Libron, president of the Chambre Syndicale des Fabricants de Corsets, and Henri Clouzot, conservateur of the Musee Galliera (better known today as the Musee la Mode et du Costume), this monumental costume book pays special tribute to Ernest Leoty’s very scarce Le Corset a Traverse les Ages (1893), which includes detailed cutting patterns and technical information for the tailor who specializes in making corsets. “A corset is somewhat similar to an umbrella in its construction. When the umbrella is raised, the fabric tautens. The ribs are reinforced with metal tips, to which the fabric of the umbrella is sewn. These tips hold the fabric in a tautened condition while the umbrella is in use. It is the same with a corset” (O.Y. Dalziel). Text in French. Without original slipcase. Hiler, 544.

Fine condition.