La Mode Pratique. Fashion Plates, La Mode Pratique, 1895-1900, 235 héliogravures by Fortier-Marotte (2 bound volumes). Paris: Hachette, 1895-1900. [6199]
Two volumes, half leather with green cloth boards, 11 3/4 x 16 1/4 inches, raised bands to spines, "Fashion Plates" and the years for each volume in gilt to spines, some scuffing to binding but no cracks. Volume I. has 113 color plates, the first 83 are printed on one side only, the rest have the color plate on front, half-tone illustrations on back. Volume II. has 122 color plates, each with half-tone illustrations on back. Light offsetting to some plates from the half-tones; one plate with a closed tear in the top margin, one plate with a small hole in the margin. 235 héliogravures by Fortier-Marotte. Very good. Hardcover.
Six years of fashion plates from La Mode Pratique, a French fashion magazine started in 1891, which featured full-color héliochrome plates of the latest Paris styles. "The first fashion photographs appeared in 1892 in the French periodical La Mode Pratique." - Danielle Hand, The Evolution of Fashion Photography online.
"La Mode Pratique was one of the first publications to experiment with fashion photography [using] héliochrome, an early form of color photography patented in France in 1868 by Louis Ducos du Hauron; du Hauron continued to perfect the process in the years that followed, and he and partner André Quinsac re-patented an improved version of the process in 1883. Prior to du Hauron, others had experimented with color photography, but their images were unstable and the colors faded quickly. In their 1883 patent, du Hauron and Quinsac explained the process as a triple exposure and color separation method. Three negatives were taken of a subject, each of which was exposed to a different color of light. Positive prints could then be mass-produced from these negatives by layering red, yellow, and blue inks. [La Mode Pratique's plates] are important examples of the technical evolution of the presentation of fashion in print. Among the earliest fashion photographs known to exist, these vanguard images are of extraordinary interest to anyone curious about the early history of fashion photography" (Calahan, Fashion Plates: 150 Years of Style, 288) posted at Bauman Rare Books website. (6199)