Vues perspectives des stations et travaux d'art des chemins de fer de la Belgique [...].

8vo oblong: 12 pl. (some foxing, minor soiling).

Publisher's binding (sl. used).

Small fascinating and very rare album with 12 lithographs by Gerard, after Henri Borremans (1834-1862), Adrien Canelle, Guimar, Vandenkerckhoven and Dees, featuring the railway stations of Belgium that were a key site of railway development after the Belgian Revolution of 1830. By 1843, when the album was published, the two main lines had been finished: the first stretch of the national network between Antwerp and Mechelen, and the line between Liège and Ostend (through Leuven, Mechelen, Dendermonde, Ghent and Bruges). In the same year, two lines crossed the border: a railway between Brussels and the Prussian border intended to link the industrialising Ruhr and Meuse valleys with the ports of the Scheldt, and a line between Brussels and the French border (Braine-le-Comte, Tournai). F. Wallart, responsible for the edition, dedicated the album to Jean-Baptiste Masui (1798-1860), first director of the Belgian railways.