" Paris, private edition by Ch. Gourdin, 1878, oblong in-4° album, 19 x 29,5 cm, title + (4) nn pp (table) + 80 lithographed plates, printed on stiff boards and mounted on a hinge, bound in a red cloth publisher's binding with black lettering and decoration of front cover, cloth a bit worn and dustsoiled, also discolored, first end leaf and title a bit foxed and thumbed, plates fine apart from the very occasional minor stain, still a fine/good copy. Exceedingly rare album illustrating the European art of coachmaking at the end of the era, barely 10 years before the advance of the motorcar. The plates are finely lithographed with great detail and depict all sorts of vehicles ; Phaëtons , Breacks (sic) , Coupés , Landauers , Sociables, Calèches , a Shooting Dog-Cart , Mylords , Char à Bancs... Apart from French companies (Paris, Lyon, Vierzon, Grenoble) vehicle builders from all over Europe are represented ; Henri Gold from London, Kölber from Budapest , Mülliner from Leamington (UK) , Mc Naught & Schmith (London) , O. De Ruyter (Bruxelles) , Van Aken Frères ( Antwerpen), J. Lohner (Wien)...and also Brewster from New York."