N.d., circa 1850s. Leporello with twelve leaves of colored plates featuring amusing caricatures of types representing most of the letters of the alphabet. Thus we have pictures of an "Acteur", "Bossu" (a hunchback), "Chiffons" (rag-picker), "Decrotteur" (shoe-black), "Enfant", "Gourmand", "Hareng" (fish-wife", "Invalide", and onward. Not all the letters are used in the illustrations. Really, the point is to present a panorama of the colorful characters and trades that might be considered street-life, or perhaps more simply, amuse. The depictions would fail miserably more recent standards of "political correctness", but their power to touch the funnybone has not the least diminished. Listed in Segoline Le Men's "Les Abecedaires francais illustres du XIXe siecle", 297.The leporello panels measure 12 by 11 cm each; when fully, the leporello is 12 by 122 cm. The surface is glossy, as called for (papier glace). It is housed in a more modern quarter leather and marbled boards binding.