[STRASBOURG.]
Souscription patriotique de la part du beau-sexe de Strasbourg.
[S.l., s.n., 1789?.]
8vo, pp. 8; caption title; small holes from previous sewing; very good; disbound.
Rare first edition of this entertaining satirical piece on women's clothing, published in the aftermath of the French Revolution. After complaining that the recent craze for ‘gauze, muslin, linen and feathers’ had brought the country to its knees, the text describes how the patriotic women of Strasbourg had decided to surrender their diaphanous fashionable clothing to be put to the use of la patrie. All donations were to be stored at the local stud farm and were to be used, for example, to 'cover' the national debt, to protect walkers from insects sucking their patriotic blood, and to dress scarecrows. Red, white and blue feathers were to be made into patriotic plumes. The most generous donors were to have their silhouettes published in the nation's newspapers, and statues of themselves, made from pink papier-mâché, erected in the town hall.
OCLC records only one copy in the UK (BL) and one in the US (University of Iowa).
