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Thackeray Flore et Zéphyr Ballet

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first and only edition, 8 mounted lithographic plates on india paper by Edward Morton after Thackeray, heightened with body colour, extra-illustrated with 2 original drawings by Thackeray, 1 in pen and ink, the other in pencil and pen and ink and heightened in coloured inks and washes, 1 captioned below the mount "Drawn H.M. Thrackery [sic]" and corrected in a different hand, mounts spotted, not affecting plates, original pictorial wrappers bound in, all bound into a late 19th century brown half crushed morocco portfolio by Zaehnsdorf, upper joint split, scuffed, [Van Duzer 69], folio, London and Paris, Graf & Soret for J. Mitchell and Rittner & Goupil, 1836.

***A fine and large copy of Thackeray's first publication. A volume of caricatures of a ballet divertisement in two acts performed during April and May 1833 in the King's Theatre, Haymarket. The celebrated Marie Taglioni danced the rôle of Flore and her partner of the year, M. Albert (François Decombe) that of Zéphyr. The ballet is the principal work of the choreographer Charles-Louis Didelot (1767-1837) and appears to be one of the first ballets in which dancers performed on pointe. It is supposed that Thackeray attended a performance during the 1833 season, as a satirical review appeared in the National Standard on 4th May, the first number published under the author's editorship. The present caricatures are very much a visual representation of his earlier review, which in particular ridicules the illusion of flying using elaborate stage machinery. Provenance: Armorial bookplate of Frederic Robert Halsey; W.W. Miller (sold at Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 6-7 November 1940, lot 430); the Foyle copy with morocco bookplate (sold Christie's, London, 13th July, 2000, lot 748)..

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