A superb suite of gorgeous views lithographed by Xavier Sandmann after drawings by the Viennese painter Rudolf von Alt. The plates were finely hand-coloured at the time and enhanced with gum Arabic. Oblong 4to contemporary small box, in the shape of a book, with lush, full green velvet, the title "Ofen und Pest" in gilt copper and small oval view in colour of the Budapest castle under mica and frame decorated with gilt copper in the centre of the upper board, gilt edges, white watered silk doublures. The box contains the front cover of the original wrappers and 23 lithographs. Dimensions of the box: 285 x 208 mm. Dimensions of the pages: 260 x 188 mm. Each lithograph, measuring approximately 185 x 128 mm, is laced with a caption in Hungarian and German. The important view-painter Rudolf von Alt was famous, well beyond the frontiers of Austria, for his ruins landscapes, city views, interiors, and bold and contrasting colours. The first student of his father Jakob, a painter and ruins drawer, he pursued his studies from 1826 at the Academy, but his work on the motif will influence even more his training. He travels throughout Austria-Hungary and in the south of Europe down to Sicily. In 1828, he accompanied his father, who made a study trip to the Austrian Alps. In 1830, he exhibited for the first time in Vienna. Professor at the Academy from 1879, he was ennobled in 1892. In 1898, he presented Klimt to the emperor and became president of honour of the artistic association of the Viennese Secession. He first painted canvas with complicated architecture, such as the Saint-Etienne Cathedral (1832, Vienna, Österr. Gal.), but he already showed a taste for watercolour, and his works in this technique can be compared to the greatest successes of French and English painters in watercolours of the time. The size of his watercolours progressively increased and sometimes reached the size of his oil paintings, where the colour is nevertheless more intense, even in interior scenes. Alt constantly knew how to bring something new to his work; the first representative of the Biedermeier realism, then of the outdoor painting, he was attracted by Impressionism, which he expressed through a very personal technique. His apparent and lightened style, without insipidness or cheesiness, evolves into an almost visionary sense of atmospheric reality in his last works. During this slow evolution, Alt never let himself neglect the positive aspect of things. It's in Vienna that we can find the most important collections of his watercolours. (Albertina and Historisches Museum) (Larousse). “In 1852 or 1853, Rudolf Alt's series of lithographs, Festõi megtekintések Budára és Pestre (Artistic Views of Buda and Pest) was published by Leopold Neumann of Vienna. Alt's original watercolours were lithographed by F. X. Sandmann, and most of them were printed by Rauh. The images are not all contemporary. They were made between 1844 and 1852, as evidenced by the state of certain buildings.” Coloured plates in order: 1. Stadt-Waldchen. 2. Kaiserbad in Ofen (Innere Ansicht). 3. Das Stadthaus in Pesth. 4. Obere Donauzeile. 5. Kettenbrucke und ein theil der Festung. 6. Hotel Europa. 7. Cassino in Pesth. 8. Kaiserbad in Ofen (Gegen D. Donau). 9. Schifs-Werfte in Alt-Ofen. 10. Rathhaus U. St. Stefanskirche in Ofen. 11. Das Konigliche Schloss in Ofen. 12. Untere Donauzeile. 13. Hotel Konigin von England. 14. Greichisch Nicht Unirte Kirche. 15. Hotel Tiger. 16. Josefsplatz. 17. Hotel zum Konig von Ungarn. 18. Georgs-Platz U Hentzi Monument in der Festung. 19. Remorqueur Herkules U. Der Bloksberg. 20. Comitat-Haus in Pesth. 21. Hotel Erzherzog Stefan. 22. National Museum. 23. National Theater.