THEATRE COMPLET de J.-B. Poquelin, de MOLIERE in Eight Volumes publié par D. Jouast. Avec la préface de 1682 annotée par G. Monval. Illustrations by Francois Boucher engraved by Tiburce de Mare.

Paris: Librairie des Bibliophiles, E. Flammarin Successeur. Very Good. 1885. Hardcover. Complete eight volume set bound in quarter morocco over marbled boards with marbled endpapers, with anchor device on title pages, woodcut decorations to heads and tails of acts and plays, green silk ribbon place markers, gilt lettering and decoration at spines. Colour mildly faded at spines with minor rubbing at extremities. Illustrated with a frontispiece portrait of Molière based on a painting by Charles-Antoine Coypel plus 34 etchings (eaux-fortes) by with tissue guards (avant toute lettre), each etching signed in pencil T. de Mare. Rather than order the suite of etchings by Leloir after Mignard which were issued by the Librairie des Bibliophiles in conjunction with this edition of Molieres works, the owner of this set chose to incorporate a set of illustrations published in 1881 by published by Librairie Lefilleul under the title "Trente-trois estampes pour les oeuvres de Moliere" (OCLC 228775267), which contains the illustrations of Francois Boucher (1703 – 1770) which were re-engraved in octavo by Tiburce de Mare as commissioned by Madame Lefilleul (La Veuve Lefilleul). This was a happy choice, as the Boucher illustrations are considered among the finest of French book illustration, and de Mare beautifully re-executed these etchings in this smaller format. Text in French. Included in this set : I : Préface de l'édition de 1682. - L'estourdy, ou les contretemps. - Dépit amoureux. - Les précieuses ridicules. - Sganarelle, ou le cocu imaginaire. (Frontispiece, plus 4 plates) - II : Dom Garcie de Navarre, ou le prince jaloux. - L'escole des maris. - Les fascheux. - L'escole des femmes. - La critique de l'escole des femmes. (6 plates) - III : L'impromptu de Versailles. - Le mariage forcé. - Les plaisirs de l'isle enchantée. - Dom Juan, ou le festin de pierre. (6 plates) - IV : L'amour médecin. - Le misantrope. - Le médecin malgré lui. - Melicerte. - Pastorale comique. - Le sicilien ou l'amour peintre. (4 plates) - V : Le Tartuffe, ou l'imposteur. - Amphitryon. - George Dandin, ou le mari confondu. - Relation de la fête de Versailles. (4 plates) - VI : L'avare. - Monsieur de Pourceaugnac. - Les amans magnifiques. (3 plates) - VII : Le bourgeois gentilhomme. - Psyché. - Les fourberies de Scapin. (4 plates) - VIII : La comtesse d'Escarbagnas. - Les femmes sçavantes. - Le malade imaginaire. - Poésies diverses. (3 plates). Date is approximate, after the publisher moved to Rue Racine (around 1883). Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known as Molière (1622-1673) was a French playwright and actor. Tiburce de Mare (1840-1900) was a portrait artist, an etcher and author of interpretative etchings of the works of other artists. François Boucher (1703 – 1770) was a French painter and secondarily a designer of costumes and sets for the theatre. His illustrations for the plays of Moliere reflect his penchant for the Rococo style and the pastoral. ; Signed by Illustrator .