Univers Romantique | Introduction

Heribert Tenschert Antiquariat Bibermühle AG Bibermühle 1–2 · 8262 Ramsen · Schweiz Telefon: +41 (52) 742 05 75 · Telefax: +41 (52) 742 05 79 E-Mail: tenschert@antiquariat-bibermuehle.ch www.heribert-tenschert.com

This collection is offered for sale en bloc.

The whole collection is described in our cataogue "Univers Romantique".

The catalogue in four volumes with 2.000 pages and 4.000 colour illustrations is available for 450,- Euro. Please visit our online shop or view the eCatalogue on www.issuu.com/heribert-tenschert ISBN: 978-3-906069-31-9

French Book Culture During the Romantic Period

Though many collectors consider the eighteenth century to be the “Golden Age” of French book culture, the triumphs of bibliophilia in nineteenth century France, reflective of the era’s vast social and technological shifts, are no less impressive. After the upheavals of the French Revolution and the era of Napoleon, the restoring Bourbon dynasty attempted a return to prior social traditions on the one hand, while the “bourgeois” nineteenth century particularly during the July Monarchy under Louis-Philippe I - also created a dynamic that set new standards and brought about a vital flourishing of the book as cultural barometer, recreational pastime, and art object.

While nineteenth century Romanticism did only partly build on the legacies of the Enlightenment, Rococo style and Classicism, it turned its interest all the more emphatically toward buried traditions of history, folk culture and religion. These expanding horizons are reflected in the Exoticism of novels such as Paul et Virginie [see case II in this display], in the popularity of travelogues, and in the production of anthologies of encyclopedic proportions such as Les Français peints par eux mêmes [see case XI]. Satirical newspapers and caricatures, meanwhile, went straight to the heart of erupting political and social conflicts [See cases IX and X].

The social changes of the time were also reflected in book culture, which began to be embraced by new audiences: editions of popular books were produced in as many as 30,000 copies, while the introduction of wood engravings allowed for a hitherto unknown wealth of illustrations that could be printed as a constant visual commentary, complementing the text.

A breakthrough was made with the adventure novel Gil Blas in 1835, which contained roughly 600 vignettes by Jean Gioux [see case VII]. In the midst of this wealth of illustrated books being published, the artist Tony Johannot became the most popular illustrator of Romanticism [see cases II , VI , VII , XII]. This flowering continued up to the middle of the century, after which Gustav Doré, a visionary artist with unrivaled skill in wood engraving, was the only serious artist to enter the scene [see case XIII].

Progressive illustration technique could also

–3–

serve the nostalgic creation of myths, as shown by the abundantly illustrated biographies of Napoléon Bonaparte [see case VIII], who had died in exile on the island of St. Helena in 1821.

Lithography as another novelty became fashionable [See case IX]. Numerous artists released albums containing suites dedicated to a particular subject, often with an undercurrent of social critique. In 1828, Delacroix, with his largescale lithographies for Goethe’s Faust, created arguably the first eminent illustrated book of Romanticism; it was also a luxury print, because along with the expansion of book culture came the desire for bibliophilic distinction.

This bibliophilic distinction was expressed on the one hand through atmospheric borrowings from the pre-revolutionary epoch of collecting: as Romantic sensibilities brought the love for the livres à figures to new heights, the book binder Boutigny revived Rocaille decoration, and the brothers Goncourt renewed the mental “connection between the old and the new French book” with their eighteenth century studies and as collectors “explored the soul of Rococo”, as Gustav Erich Bogeng put it.

On the other hand, the bibliophily of the nineteenth century set entirely new standards.

The librarian of the Arsenal library in Paris, Charles Nodier, combined “artistic and scientific pursuit of love for books” in an exemplary manner. It culminated in his credo: “Caring for books means having a good taste; knowing and reading books is intelligence that can reach wisdom; a library is a pleasure, a world view and an instrument” [Bogeng]. As a multifaceted creative activity, bibliophily had found itself.

"One of the first needs of man is to adorn what he loves" - with this strikingly simple explanation Nodier justified the revived love for beautiful bookbinding, which especially came to fruition in the intricately decorated mosaic bindings by Badiéjous, Simier, Thouvenin, and Bauzonnet-Trautz, which either harked back to forms of the Renaissance or the 18th century, or incorporated the new gothicising decoration à la cathédrale. Completely unique are the luxury bindings decorated with gold, silver, and gemstones, that come with the highest provenance, such as the collection of Emperor

Napoleon III [see case V]. A book lover such as Alexandre Roudinesco bonded with his books by designing the bindings himself [see cases II and X]. More generally, the role of bindings changed when publishers began to offer their books no longer solely in unbound quires, but optionally ready-bound. Furthermore, for the first time in the 19th century, publishers also created luxury bindings in morocco and with attractive cover designs, often with lavish gold-blocked decoration, which were made available to a narrow segment of buyers [see case III].

It was the Goncourt brothers who elevated the contemporary book to the rank of a collector’s object by discovering a particular “personal allure” in the exemplaire d’amateur, as Bogeng noted: “not only biblio-biographically, but also from a commercial point of view, the entire history of the book could be deduced from just one distinguished copy: the livre contemporain was transformed into a livre documenté.” As such, the book was not only supposed to be in the best possible state of preservation, but ideally also including all of the original printed covers, the publisher’s brochures and the affiches; or as a rare de-luxe edition: illuminated [see cases I, IX , X, XI ), printed on China paper [see cases II , VI-VIII , XI], or even uniquely on parchment [see cases XII , XIII]. The provenance could also elevate a copy, whether it came from the highest aristocratic circles [see cases II , V, XII] or from the immediate circle of the author – for example from the possession of Madame de Balzac [see case XIII]. One could get particularly close to the aura of the creator by adding powerful autographs [see case II], or even an entire album amicorum with contributions from famous contemporaries [see case V].

–4–

The Univers romantique can be experienced first and foremost through the era’s illustrated books, which have appealed to distinguished collectors, notably Henri Beraldi [see cases III , VI , VII], ever since. Consequently, the original drawings, the preparatory sketches and models for the finished prints, deserve special attention: oscillating between the preliminary and the complete, they allow valuable insights into the process of artistic creation [see cases I, XII]. In our display, you’ll find the artist Jean Gigoux’s sketchbook for Gil Blas [see case IV], as well as Gavarni’s album with preliminary drawings for the Diable de Paris [see case XII], and an eclectic collection of drawings by Grandville [see case X]. No less interesting is the transition from the drawing to the printed illustration: prints in different states [see cases VII , XI and XII], and even the original printing blocks of the wood engravings [see cases II and XI] are therefore equally relevant and rare collectibles.

Between 1825 and 1870, France "reached a new and high level of book art," [Max Sanders], but that would not have been possible without the important and decisive role of the collectors and bibliophiles. The special and luxury editions of the Romantic period meant that the highly collectible exemplaire unique was no longer just confined to books of the past, but that collectors could find treasures among contemporary published works. Almost two centuries later, you will find no richer demonstration and preservation of this magical time than in the collection we’re introducing here with a handful of works.

For more information, please see our comprehensive catalogue on the collection in four volumes, Univers Romantique.

I. Romantic Popular Culture: Chants et chansons populaires de la France

An important aspect of Romanticism was the return to folk culture, as exemplified in the Chants et chansons populaires de la France. Therein, the pastoral songs and love songs from the 18th century were now joined by ballads, soldier songs, folk songs, and revolutionary songs. The work, completed in 1843, was published in 84 fascicles: each was made up of an engraved double leaf with the song lyrics, accompanied and framed by illustrations while two further leaves provided the sheet music and notes on the song. The graceful, sometimes figurative, sometimes rural steel-engraved illustrations frame, entwine, and divide the verses; at other times they fill almost the entire page. These illustrations are not merely ornamental, but functional, according to the publisher Delloye, as a Musée Pittoresque, a picturesque museum, wherein the illustration of the songs also visualises the zeitgeist represented in the material: fashions and costumes, ways of life, and interiors. Following in the footsteps of the engraved works of splendour of the 18th century, the Chants et Chansons populaires de France, with their high artistic standard, were considered to be one of the “most important illustrated books of the 19th century” [Beraldi].

The main illustrators were Joseph-Louis Trimolet, Louis-Charles-Auguste Steinheil, and the landscapist Charles-François Daubigny; further, individual models were provided by Ernest Meissonier, Julien Léopold Boilly, Grandville, and others.

Owing to their elaborate and exquisite illustrations, as well as the precious bibliophile treatment that has made these specimens unique, these volumes stand as testament to how intensively low- and high-brow culture intersected during French Romanticism.

The first copy in this display comes in the festive Rocaille publisher’s bindings, in a dark green morocco, probably bound by Boutigny [no. 111].

–6–

Only four coloured copies are known to be in existence, and three of them are in our collection [nos. 112-114]. The meticulous contemporary colouring was executed with the utmost care and heightened with eggwhite - each copy with its own individual colour scheme: the first two are coloured with such density that they appear more like small paintings than colored engravings. The third copy [114] subscribes to a very different overall aesthetic concept: it was printed on slightly tinted paper and furnished with two sets of plates, so that the black-and-white illustrations are directly juxtaposed with their coloured counterparts. The colouring is delicate, with some areas remaining uncoloured, which ultimately serves the underlying outlines and shading. All three copies are unique.

Three copies have been augmented with original drawings. One contains Trimolet's preliminary drawing illustrating the wrapper for the third fascicle [no. 115], while the next copy [no. 117] includes seven original drawings by Trimolet, plus 42 proofs, all covers, the poster, etc.

- all compiled by Paul Villeboeuf and bound by Émile Mercier. No wonder Carteret considered it an “outstanding copy”.

Finally, we have the copy that’s a variation of Boutigny's luxury publisher’s bindings in dark green morocco [no. 118], to which 71 drawings, mostly by Steinheil and Trimolet, were added, as well as 54 unique proofs of the song lyrics on large China paper. Finally, Laurent Meeûs compiled an ensemble of 62 drawings by Trimolet, Steinheil, and Henry Émy, which were mounted underneath gold-framed mats and then bound by Georges Mercier in a fine binding of midnightblue morocco [no. 119].

II. Back to Nature: Paul et Virginie by Bernadin de Saint-Pierre

The 1838 edition of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's novel Paul et Virginie, which was published by Léon Curmer, has gained cult status as the illustrated book of the Romantic par excellence.

First published in 1788, the sentimental-melodramatic love story set on Mauritius (then Île-deFrance) was the first document of French exotisme, steeped in Enlightenment thought and a Rousseauian sentiment of nature. With the richly illustrated "édition extraordinaire", Curmer created what Beraldi considered to be the most famous illustrated book of the 19th century. While Tony Johannot and the young Ernest Meissonier (on the appended story La chaumière indienne) were the main illustrators, also involved were Eugène Isabey, Paul Huet, Charles Jacque, Célestin Nanteuil, Henri Antoine Baron, François Louis Français, and others. The pictorial cosmos of the book includes seven steelengraved portraits, 29 plates, over 450 text illustrations, as well as a map of the island of Mauritius.

The first of the copies shown in this display is in a morocco binding with Rocaille decor typical of the time, signed by Tell Bescher [no. 49]. Alongside it is a publisher’s binding à l’orientale in red morocco that used to belong to Robert d’Orléans, the Duke of Chartres [no. 50]. Bound in red morocco by royal bookbinder Simier is a copy à la Bonne Femme, with a rare portrait medallion of the publisher's wife [no. 51]. A real highlight is the velvet binding by Alphonse Giroux with gilded fittings [no. 53]. The copy of Parisian publisher Arthur Meyer in a binding by Henri Marius Michel with inlaid à la répétition morocco doublures, contains a substantial letter from the author Bernadin de Saint-Pierre with original drawings

–8–

for his title portrait by Lafitte, as well as four drawings by Tony Johannot [no. 55]. Out of the 35 copies on China paper, five are in our collection: one of these was owned by Crown Prince Louis Ferdinand d’Orléans (father of Robert), who had it bound in completely uncut condition in red morocco by Laurent [no. 57].

Another autograph of the author was added to the night blue morocco volume by M. Cuzin [no.

56]. Out of the 15 copies that were printed on large China paper, three are on show here: one from the collection of Alexandre Roudinesco, in a binding after his own design by Maylander [no. 58], one in a contemporary binding by Hardy-Mennil, which includes a signed letter from Napoleon Bonaparte [no. 59], in which he asks the author for a sequel to the story! - and lastly, the most beautiful copy known [no. 60], bound by Henri Marius Michel in two volumes with floralornamental mosaic bindings: this volume not only includes all plates in variants, but also most of all the text illustrations as fumés on China paper.

This extraordinary copy comes from the collection of Paul Sébastien Gallimard.

The cult surrounding Paul et Virginie not only found expression in the extraordinary features of the book itself: our collection also includes no less than 60 original printing blocks [nos. 6166], heightened with Meudon White, which were framed and compiled into six ensembles of display cases. In this display you can see the printing block of the plate depicting Paul embracing a papaya tree [from no. 64], alongside Tony Johannot’s exceptionally delicate and detailed original pencil drawing in a decidedly larger format [no. 67].

III: A Gold-Stamped Age: Luxurious Publishers’ Bindings

Up until the nineteenth century, it was customary for publishers to deliver books in unbound quires, or fascicles, covered with wrappers - the bindings were to be commissioned by the buyers themselves. By the time of the Romantic era, in response to reader demand for books packaged for quick consumption, publishers began to offer their wares optionally ready-bound. They even began to cater to bibliophilic demands for preciousness and individuality by making a narrow segment of their editions available in richly gilded and illustrated morocco bindings. Representative of this in more ways than one is the morocco binding for Balzac’s aptly titled The Shagreen Leather (La peau de chagrin) from 1838 [no. 14]: the central medallion, with its echoes of Rococo style, appears in the place where the supralibros (the coat of arms or monogram on the front and back covers indicating ownership of a book) would typically be. With its elaborate, epitaph-like framing, featuring the three classical muses perched on top, the design is complemented by gothic decorative elements à la cathedrale. The ornamentation of the three morocco-bound volumes of 1001 Nights (Les mille et une nuits), signed by Mugnerot [no. 446], is more true to the stories within its pages: Arabesques surround depictions of Scheherazade, a dancer, and an Arab on a camel. The floral-linear decorations are more dominant on the binding designed by Adolph Menzel for the History of Frederick the Great [no. 362]. The red morocco binding by the Prussian court binder Vogt represents Fridericus Rex by combining his initials F.R. with the emblems of the golden eagle and the lion's skin with the clubs of Hercules.

The rare luxury covers of Le diable à Paris [no. 155] play with the polarity of frame vs. centre: the central medallions, depicting the figure of the devil, visualise the book’s frame narrative, while the people and places that feature in the stories themselves are integrated into the floral borders. Also rare is the special edition binding to Musset’s Voyage où il vous plaira, illustrated by Tony Johannot. The gold-blocked plates of the binding offer a creative take on the book’s illustrations: on the front cover, the young man's nightmares have literally dissolved into smoke, while on the back

cover two monsters pull a sled carrying the young man’s sleeping fiancee - a motif that does not appear in the book itself.

In several works shown, Grandville not only illustrated the books’ pages, but also designed their bindings. He himself designed the chromolithographic binding for Don Quixote, made from white glazed stiff boards (cartonnage), rich in gold and vivid in colour [no. 107], while the red morocco binding by Engel & Schaeck for an edition of Robinson Crusoe was probably executed by the engraver Liebherre [no. 139]. The blocks for his last work, Les étoiles, on red morocco were made by Robert Haarhaus [no. 309]. The two bindings by Louis Reybaud for Jérome Paturot from 1846 and 1849 respectively, are very different: the red morocco volume illustrated by Grandville shows the protagonist’s mock coat of arms, while the binding to the sequel illustrated

by Tony Johannot is shown in a blue morocco binding depicting the instruments of the revolution - both blocks by Haarhaus [no. 537].

Whether the works were escapist or political, or whether they appeared before or after the 1848 Revolution, had little effect on the luxury bindings. This is evident in the aubergine-coloured morocco binding for the Empire de Légumes [no. 592], as well as the binding for Assemblée nationale comique with the gilt cover illustration after Cham: a jester can be seen standing on the shoulders of a group of parliamentarians; he holds in his hands a quill that extends into a whip, with which he is driving the men beneath him [no. 414].

Befitting the foundation of the Second Empire is the richly gilded cover motif of Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield from 1852: a lonely reader, standing in nature, surrounded by an geometrically stylised cosmos [no. 273]. The polychrome cover illustration for Karr's Voyage autour de mon jardin also conjures up a natural idyll over a dark percaline background [no. 357]. The 1852 edition of Paul et Virginie decidedly ignores the novel’s tragic ending and instead the night blue morocco binding shows the small children blissfully asleep in a hammock in midst of the jungle [no. 70].

– 10 –

IV. The Art of Drawing in the Romantic Era

The illustrators of the 19th century captured the world around them with keen eyes and virtuoso pens. The art of drawing had reached the zenith of its development - before the implementation of photography it was simply the popular medium in book illustration. Moreover, what drawing had over the new photomechanical imaging process was that it was not bound to merely documenting reality: anything that the artist could imagine, no matter how fantastical, could be drawn.

Naturelle) in the middle of the 18th century. Our copy from the last edition with steel engravings (1855-57) has been supplemented with 121 original drawings; and our display includes two illuminated images by the main contributor Édouard Traviès [no. 96]. By showing the animals in their natural habitat, he is giving even these zoological drawings a Romantic feel, turning them into independent works of art rather than clinical illustrations to a scientific work.

In this respect, the medium of drawing itself has a special affinity with the Romantic epoch. The artists’ diligence and energy that went into the 1668 original drawings compiled in our collection, is nowhere better exemplified than in the 260 original drawings mostly by Édouard Wattier, for the 1840 edition of Arabian Nights by Ernest Bourdin [no. 447]. Drawn in pencil and pen, washed in brown and heightened with white, these works with their lively “oriental” colours are, like the tales themselves, the product of a vivid imagination. The same is true for the illustrations for Charles Perrault’s Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals (Histoires ou contes du temps passé) in the style of the Barbizon school [no. 494].

The copy that belonged to Henri Cherrier and Henri Bonasse includes eleven watercoloured “preliminary drawings” by Hippolyte Pauquet, which are incomparably more detailed, multifaceted, striking, and atmospheric than the etchings found in the text.

In his fables, Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian related human behaviour with examples from the animal world, and so when it came to illustrating these stories, Grandville, the inventor of the animalhuman caricature [see more in case no. X], was a perfect choice. The copy that once belonged to Léopold Carteret also uniquely includes the artist’s preliminary drawing for the advertising poster, where the mirrored design is executed in pencil and sepia ink [no. 206]. Grandville's Public and Private Life of Animals (Scènes de la vie privée and publique des animaux) not only returned to the animal kingdom, but their comprehensive and systematic approach to representation recalled the distant model of Buffon. On show are two of Grandville’s scénes, out of a corpus of 35 pen drawings in total [no. 313].

The Romantic period also inherited certain large scale projects from the Enlightenment that sought to understand and organise the world around them. Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon had started work on his monumental defining work on natural history (Histoire

Pierre-Jules Hetzel’s Le diable à Paris presented a panorama of society without the disguising veils utilised in animal fables. The 1845-46 edition includes a total of 212 plates by the subtle ironist Gavarni (born Guillaume-Sulpice Chevallier).

An album with 52 originals, which the artist dedicated to his colleague Paul Delaroche, contains 48 preliminary drawings for this work alone, one of which can be seen here [no. 249].

– 12 –

V. Perfection and Splendour: Bindings by Masters of the Romantic Era

One of the effects of the French Revolution was a steep decline in the art of bookbinding. After the simple and plain bindings produced during Napoleon’s First Empire (1804-1814), the time of the Bourbon Restoration (1814-1830) saw a renewed popularity of decorative and precious bindings, which harked back to a variety of different historical styles. The master bookbinders of the Romantic placed great importance on technical perfection, which was particularly evident in the era’s gold-tooled and splendid mosaic bindings.

Though already printed in 1803, Florian’s Éliezer et Nephtaly [no. 200] was not bound until the Restoration period more than a decade later, and while the outer frame remains in strict linearity, the decorations in the centre play with the typical diamond and volute shapes of the Rococo. The same might be said of Demoustier, 1830, which is even more lavishly decorated [no. 148]. The Toulouse bookbinder Jean Badiéjous, who was considered an “excellent craftsman” [Fléty], was active between 1807-1847, which meant his work spanned more than one epoch. He furnished Goethe’s Werther edition from 1825 with a colourful mosaic binding, which draws on the 18th century’s wealth of forms such as vines, shells, and daisies [no. 261]. In the same tradition are the two delicately decorated red morocco bindings by René Simier, who was the royal bookbinder at the time. Simier not only bound a Molière edition for Prince Michail Alexandrowitsch Galitzin [no. 449], but he was also the artist behind the binding for the complete works of Rousseau, which used to belong to Marie Caroline Duchesse de Berry [no. 542].

The 1825 edition of works of François-Joachim Pierre de Bernis was also bound in a historicised cover by E. Vogel: here it is the framing of coloured leather stripes that emerges more strongly than the ornamental volutes, blossoms, and palmettes, while in the golden field at the centre, an elaborate rosette overlays a diamond shape exemplifying the new decorative style à la

cathédrale [no. 75]. The same bookbinder was also responsible for the binding of the Sainte Bible, on which a rosette and diamond shape are emphasised by parallel stripes [no. 547]. The rosette is more prominent in the small binding by Duplanil fils for Les six codes [no. 558]; it finally appears fully emancipated as the central decorative shape on Thouvenin’s grandiose Maroquin citron (yellow morocco) binding for Malherbes Poésies [no. 438]. On the doublure (the inside of the covers) appears another rosette, while on the outside, the bookbinder Bogetti “degothicised” the motif by turning it into a floral stamped circle [no. 259]. Two volumes from the series of Livres Troubadour vary the décor a la cathedrale, which suits the books’ medieval material particularly well: the red morocco volume by Livre Mignard follows in the footsteps of Simier’s filigree [no. 420]. The outside covers of Jean Badiéjous' binding for the Historial du Jongleur are adorned with a luxuriant portico, while the silk doublure is decorated with another gothic rosette [no. 425].

Two large format albums offer a wide field of experimentation for the play with gothic ornamental elements: the precious Album amicorum of Pauline François, with drawings and autographs of the crème de la crème of French Romanticism [No. 153], as well as a midcentury album containing photographs, probably

by J. M. Kronheim [no. 560].

The "fanfare" style of the 16th century is mimicked by the all-over gold-plated cover of Christopher Wordsworth's La Grèce pittoresque et historique [no. 598]; Les évangiles were inspired by the Renaissance-era wax coloured mosaic bindings, while the punched gilt edge was painted with miniatures of the Evangelists [no. 191].

The two books of hours not only flaunt decorations of silver, gold, and precious stones, but they are of the highest provenance: one belonged to Princess Alicia of Bourbon-Parma [no. 418], the other to Emperor Napoleon III [no. 417].

– 14 –

VI. The most beloved book artist of the Romantic period: Tony Johannot

illustrates the works of Molière as well as Prévost’s Histoire de Manon Lescaut Tony Johannot was perhaps the most popular book artist of the Romantic period. His illustrations for the editions of Molière and Prévost serve as perfect examples for the rich variety of luxury displayed in the finest specimens of the era’s book art.

The edition of Molière’s collected works on display here, which was published almost contemporaneously with Gigoux’s Gil Blas (see case VII in our stand), includes around 650 text illustrations by Johannot; undoubtedly the crowning achievement of the woodcut’s revolutionary triumph in Romantic book illustration. Whereas the vignettes at the beginning and end of the individual chapters playfully refer to formal Rococo traditions, the drawings by Johannot accompany the text as “descriptive” commentary: "Never were author and illustrator more entirely in harmony," Gordon N. Ray enthused, while the Johannot connoisseur Aristide Marie praised "an ease, a gaiety, a style of remarkable originality" in the depicted figures and scenes.

The exceedingly beautiful book appears here in a contemporary binding signed by the artist Abich [no. 451]. Its provenance is full of distinguished names: Philippine de Maucler received Molière’s comedies as a present on the occasion of her wedding to Louis Marquis de Vaulchier in 1836; after her death it was acquired by Achille Perreau, whose library was auctioned in 1946; afterwards it was in the possession of Michel Wittock.

Copies on China paper are extremely rare, yet we are able to show you three in this display: one from the collections of Lebœuf de Montgermont and Antoine Vautier in morocco bindings by Émile Mercier [no. 452], an uncut copy in its original fascicles with morocco chemises and cases by Georges Mercier from the collections of Brivois, Roudinesco and Esmerian [no. 453], and finally Henri Beraldi's copy in steel-blue morocco bin-

dings by Bauzonnet [no. 454]: "This is the ideal book," Beraldi himself raved in Estampes et Livres.

Abbé Prévost’s tragic love story about Manon Lescaut, with its mixture of introspection and driving plot, was also a rewarding subject for Johannot’s illustrations. Here the 64 text vignettes are facing 18 full-page illustrations; the Rococo costumes and interiors hark back to the earlier time of the novel’s creation.The publisher’s binding by Boutigny, with portrait medallions of the novel’s protagonists and Rocaille decorations, echoes this stylistic decision: here you can see it in the luxury version bound in red morocco with tooling in gold and blind [no. 511], and in the copy bound in green morocco with hand-painted medallions [no. 512].

Only 25 copies of Manon Lescaut were printed on China paper, and very few of them were printed on both sides. Out of those precious few, two are included in our display: we see the copy that belonged to Antoine Vautier and Henri Bonnasse, with its original wrappers bound into a binding by Émile Mercier [no. 513], as well as the copy of Jules Janin in a contemporary signed morocco binding by Bauzonnet-Trautz [no. 514].

The three copies on China paper printed on one side only of the leaf also come from important collections: the dark blue Rocaille volume bound by Émile Mercier formerly belonged to Paul Villebœuf and Pierre Duché [no. 516]; an edition bound contemporaneously in red morocco by R. Petit once belonged to Abel Giraudeau, Henri Beraldi, Laurent Meeûs, Georges Lainé, Raphaël Esmerian and Sam Clapp [no. 515]; the third copy, also bound by Petit in a different variation, was once owned by René Descamps-Scrive and André Tissot-Dupont [no. 517]. The provenances truly read like a list of the most significant representatives of two centuries of French bibliophilia.

– 16 –

VII. The Revolution of Book Illustration: Le Sage’s Histoire de Gil Blas

de Santillane by Gigoux and Le diable boiteux by Tony Johannot It might sound surprising that a picaresque novel from the 18th century ended up revolutionising both French book illustration and production in 1835, but that is exactly what happened with the edition of Alain-René Le Sage’s Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane with almost 600 wood engravings. Its publication coincided with the attempted assassination of the "Citizen King" and the September laws, which banned all political caricatures. Dejected, the bourgeoisie consequently withdrew from politics into the private realm.

No wonder that a protagonist like Gil Blas hit a nerve: he is a man of the people, simple and cunning, going through life laughing and always seeking to further his personal advantage.

From the outset, the publisher Paulin expected the edition to be a mainstream success: inplace of costly etchings, he banked on small wood engravings that continuously interspersed the text.

At first, he commissioned Jean François Gigoux to produce 100 vignettes, but when they started arriving, he realised that the illustrations would be the real attraction of the edition. Consequently, he ordered another 300, and eventually 200 more. In response to this large order, the artist Gigoux modified his style to a sketchy liveliness that corresponded to the constant vicissitudes of the adventurous plot: "The quicker his stroke, the more forceful the effect," Arthur Rümann noted, and nowhere can this effect be seen better than in Gigoux’s original sketchbook with 75 sketches and drawings [no. 405]. The numerous illustrations not only made the already popular text more easily digestible, but combined with the edition’s affordable price point and the serialised publication, it attracted a readership that had not previously been part of the book-buying class.

The first edition had a print run of 30,000 copies, a tremendously high number at the time.

In parallel to these popular editions, Paulin also published luxury versions, which passed through the hands of the most renowned bibliophiles. In this display you can see a half morocco copy from 1900 by Thierry [no. 399] as well as Henri Beraldi's copy in the rare luxury publisher’s binding [no.

400]. Also on show is one of the incredibly rare copies on China paper, from the collections o Lebœuf de Montgermont, Cortland Bishop and Bonnasse [no. 402], as well as the only copy on China paper in the old binding, a fine red morocco, by Thompson, from the collections of Ripault, Bishop, Rivière, Esmerian, and Tissot-Dupont [no. 403]. The collection further includes a serie of 62 proofs of the wood engravings on China paper, probably from the estate of Aristide Marie, bound in half morocco by Devauchelle [no. 404], The sensational success of Gil Blas quickly caught on. In 1840, Ernest Bourdin published another work by Le Sage, Le diable boiteux (The Devil upon Two Sticks), a mixture of picaresque novel, diablerie, and a satirical portrayal of society, with almost 150 vignettes by Tony Johannot. The copy in the luxury publisher’s binding by Boutigny contains numerous proofs of the wood engravings [no. 409], while no less than two of the copies presented here are printed on China paper: one in a contemporary brown morocco binding [no.

410], the second in a red morocco binding by Émile Mercier [no. 411]. On the charmingly illustrated affiche, Tony Johannot, who was then already the most popular romantic book illustrator of the time, confidently placed his name at the center of the image [no. 412].

– 18 –

VIII. The Cult of Napoleon: Laurent de l’Ardèche, Norvins, Barthélemy/Méry,

and Las Cases – Drawings by Horace Vernet, Raffet, Bellangé, and Charlet Republican aspirations were not the only thing gaining traction with the population of France during "Citizen King" Louis-Philippe’s July Monarchy of 1830; a warm nostalgia for the era of Napoleon Bonaparte was also on the rise. The most obvious expressions of this are biographical works, which due to the technique of wood engraving - appeared in abundantly illustrated editions. Following the example of Gigoux's concept of illustration in the Histoire de Gil Blas, Napoleon's story, too, was illustrated and elucidated like that of a novel’s protagonist. In 1839, the Histoire de l'empereur Napoléon by Paul-Matthieu Laurent de l'Ardèche was published in an edition with over 450 woodcuts by Horace Vernet.

The copy on China paper [no. 388] originally belonged to Anatole de Démidoff, Prince of San Donato, who married Napoleon's niece Mathilde Bonaparte in 1840, meaning that this book could have been a wedding present. Afterwards it passed through the collection of Giraudeau as well as those of Lebœuf de Montgermont (who commissioned the red morocco binding from Émile Mercier), Vautier and Bonnasse. The second edition from 1843 [no. 390] with Napoleon’s funeral already reflects the emerging cult surrounding the emperor: 44 coloured plates after Hippolyte Bellangé depict all the troop units and uniforms of the Grande Armée. Bound into the green morocco publisher’s binding is a watercolour by Bellangé, as well as the watercolour model for the book’s frontispiece, a monumental equestrian statue, by Horace Vernet.

Around the same time, another work on Napoleon was published in competition with this work: the Histoire de Napoléon by Jacques de Norvins (1839) contained 350 illustrations by Auguste Raffet.

More so than in Vernet’s woodcuts, Raffet’s focus was on Napoleon's personality, as well as on animated crowd and battle scenes. Léopold Carteret noted that “this beautiful book is highly sought after for its beautiful illustrations”.

Bound into the morocco binding with Napoleonic emblems by Marcellin Lortic are 21 original sketches by Raffet [no. 478]. Our display also shows August Raffet's own copy [no. 479], which is one of only two known on China paper, and contains one original drawing, as well as 33 proofs of wood engravings, which were probably added later by Paul Sébastien Gallimard, some of which show striking divergence from the final state.

In 1842, Auguste-Marseille Barthélemy and Joseph Méry published the epic Napoléon en Égypte, with around 150 illustrations, mostly by Hippolyte Bellangé. The publisher’s binding by Boutigny [no. 32], with its illustration of a crowned eagle with outstretched wings, shooting lightning from its claws, most likely also contributed to the mythologization of Napoleon.

However, the main work of the cult surrounding the emperor was the Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène, which Napoleon himself had dictated to Naval Officer Emmanuel de Las Cases while in exile. The 1842 edition was published with over 500 illustrations, mostly by Nicolas-Toussaint Charlet, which depicted Napoleon’s everyday life on St. Helena, combined with reminiscences of the past. However, the artist was said to have been so disappointed by the wood engravings that he decided not to illustrate books any further. A look at the album with its 21 pencil drawings allows a comparison between the artist’s originals and the prints.

Two copies in this display are in publisher’s bindings by Boutigny, one in blue morocco [no. 381] and one in red morocco [no. 382]; the third copy is printed on China paper, in an especially rare variant, in which the plates are also mounted on China paper. These two volumes were bound in velvet by Bauzonnet-Trautz, with gilded bronze medallions by Antoine Bovy [no. 383].

– 20 –

IX. La Caricature - the Most Important Illustrated Satirical

Periodical of the 19th Century (1830-35) The July Revolution of 1830 put an end to the Restoration period of the Bourbons, and brought to power the "Citizen King" Louis-Philippe I, in whom the politically underrepresented middle class invested their hopes. During the revolution, the press had already played a significant role, and once freedom of the press was declared, the subversive publisher Charles Philipon saw an opportunity for a satirical weekly publication that would comment current affairs from a Republican point of view.

After an assassination attempt on Louis-Philippe in July of 1835 killed 18 people, the king placed some of the blame on the oppositional press.

The “September laws” that were consequently introduced soon after, further limited the press, and, crucially, outlawed all political caricature.

As a result, La Caricature published the last of its 251 issues on 27 August, 1835. In the last instalment, Daumier depicted those that lost their lives in the July revolution as rising from their graves and lamenting the futility of their sacrifice.

The first issue of La Caricature was published in 1830, but by the beginning of 1831, press laws were again restricted, and the new government under Casimir Périer declared war on the opposition, and so La Caricature, too, went on the offensive. The "Citizen King" in particular, the former bearer of hope, incurred the indignation of the disappointed citizenry. Thus began a battle on unequal footing, like David against Goliath: in the clash of “Philipon versus Philippe”, the journalist immortalised the monarch as Roi Poire, the Pear King: Honoré Daumier’s drawing depicting the metamorphosis of the King’s face into a pear in four stages was presented in court as evidence by Philipon when he was charged with “outrage against the person of the King”. Entitled Croquades Faites à l'audience du 14 nov.

(Cour d'Assis) the illustration was shortly added to the issue of November 24, and the pear became an often-repeated shorthand in satirical depictions of the king.

From an art historical perspective, the periodical with its over 520 lithographs represents the pinnacle of 19th-century French pictorial satire.

In opposition to the official art of the Academy, the circle of artists who worked on La Caricature, including Honoré Daumier, Grandville, Gavarni, Cham, Charlet, Achille Devéria , Henri Monnier, Charles Joseph Traviès, and Auguste Raffet, developed a new artistic language that greatly influenced the development of satirical as well as realistic art, as is evident in Traviès' representations of proletarians and social outsiders.

As consequence of his insubordinations, Philipon faced constant legal charges, trials, fines and seizures. In 1832, in order to raise funds for the publication, he founded the Association mensuelle pour la liberté de la presse, which issued a monthly large lithograph as an appendix to La Caricature.

Among them were five famous prints by Daumier, whose lithograph "Rue Transnonain" shows a bourgeois family murdered in their home, and is considered one of the greatest printed graphic works of art.

The complete copy with uncoloured lithographs on China paper, as well as various additional material, bound in eleven volumes by Georges Mercier [no. 99] is of the greatest rarity. It is presented here alongside another extreme rarity, an unbound copy of all separate issues [no. 100], with plates on vellum paper, as well as a second set of plates, some printed on China paper and others with contemporary colouring, which once belonged to Adolphe Bordes.

This display also includes three original pen drawings by Grandville [no. 283], the most important contributor to La Caricature, among them the template for the Lithographie mensuelle, depicting Charles Philipon riding a lion, jousting with a censor on a rooster, who, wounded by a stab of Philipon’s lancet/pen, topples to the ground.

– 22 –

X. The World of Grandville: From the Métamorphoses du jour and the Scènes de la vie privée et publique des animaux to Un autre monde Métamorphoses du jour "Mylord, I offer you my duty and my daughter."

With these words, the disgusting fish head of a parvenu introduces the Duke of Orléans, portrayed with the elegant face of an eagle owl, to a blushing turkey hen - a bold parody of a scandalous-amorous adventure between the son of the emergent "Citizen King" Louis-Philippe and a low-ranking girl. It did not take long until the illustration and the book it appeared in, Les Métamorphoses du jour,

by Parisian caricaturist Jean Grandville, were the talk of the town. In 73 pen lithographs he parodied the representatives of society by depicting them with animal heads, thereby exposing the abysmal irrationalities of the condition humaine. Grandville thus not only introduced the animal-human caricature to book illustration, but in the context of the 1830 July Revolution, some of the plates were also politically explosive: Charles Philipon immediately contracted him for the magazine La Caricature (see case IX in this display). Here you can see an uncut, hand-coloured copy in a contemporary binding by Thouvenin [no. 279].

Scènes de la vie privée et publique des animaux In his magnum opus, the Public and Private Life of Animals (Scènes de la vie privée et publique des animaux, 1842), Grandville drew on a similar principle of representation, combining individual portraits with the story of a revolution that culminated in the bitter realization of failure. The work was initiated by the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel, whose model was Curmer's collection Les français peints par eux-mêmes (see case XI), which is also alluded to in the poster advertisement shown here [no. 290]. To this day, the work is celebrated as "one of the most successful books of the time", which raised Grandville "to the zenith of his glory" according to Annie Renonciat.

Here we see the collector René DescampsScrive’s copy in its publisher’s binding of dark red morocco [no. 286]. The coloured copy shown [no. 287] is "of the greatest rarity", according to Léopold Carteret: it includes two additional sets of plates, one of which is on China paper, as well as all original wrappers, and the history of prove-

nance is extraordinary, ranging from Jules Brivois and Carteret himself to Alexandre Roudinesco (who had it bound after his own design by Maylander), and Henri Bonnasse.

The copy of the first volume in a binding by René Aussourd [no. 288] was long thought to be the only copy printed on China paper. It wasn’t until well into the 20th century that a complete two-volume set surfaced (also now a part of our collection). The other specimen shown here [no. 313], offers us a glimpse into Grandville’s working process: it includes 35 pen drawings, 13 of which were done for Scènes de la vie, with the artist’s pencil traces still visible, as well as his instructions to the engravers. The pen drawing by Grandville [no. 284] was evidently never printed.

A work of art in and of itself, it belonged to his sister-in-law Louise Fischer: the physiognomies of conversing passers-by are just as captivating as Granville’s playing with the distorted proportions.

Un autre monde The maturation of Grandville’s compositional capabilities is clearly evident in his most disturbing book, Another World (Un autre monde).

In a departure from the earlier Scènes de la vie, which featured illustrations based on articles and short stories by an assemblage of famous writers, the illustrations for Another World are based solely on the artist’s imagination. Even the book’s lyricism is completely subordinate to Grandville’s fanciful imagery of an alien planet full of chimeras, technical devices, cosmic wonders, and shifted perspectives.

On display here is the copy that belonged to Léopold Carteret [no. 297], in the colour-illustrated percaline publisher’s binding. The poster advertisement [no. 300], with an image not found in the book itself, is of a surreal, dreamlike quality. The calligraphic manuscript with 38 pen drawings [no. 299] by an anonymous contemporary artist serves as a unique homage to the artist of Another World.

Additionally, we show Grandville's poster to Petites misères de la vie humaine from 1843 [no. 295].

– 24 –

XI. The French in their Own Image: Les Français peints par eux-mêmes

By the mid-19th century, constitutional monarchy had been consolidated. At the same time, book production also entered a new phase of collecting and stock-taking, inspired by the encyclopaedias of the Enlightenment era. Still considered to be the “social encyclopaedia of the 19th century” [Renonciat], Les Français peints par eux-mêmes (The French in their own image), was the most ambitious undertaking by the publisher Léon Curmer, published between 1840-42 in 422 fascicles or eight volumes. The entirety of French society at the time of the July Monarchy is classified by profession and occupation, and presented in text and image. For the texts, Curmer hired the most important authors of the time, such as Honoré de Balzac, Théophile Gautier, Jules Janin, Charles Nodier, as well as Gérard de Nerval and Alexandre Dumas.

Out of all the illustrators involved, Paul Gavarni was the style-defining and quantitatively most important contributor, with almost 200 pictures, followed by Hippolyte Émile Pauquet.

They are joined by other famous artists, such as Grandville, Tony Johannot and Honoré Daumier (the latter was responsible for the 16 of the strongest and most creative illustrations in the entire work). Henry Monnier and Charles Joseph Traviès were hired as "specialists" in the depiction of the lower classes, Eugène Lami portrayed the military, while other artists were responsible for the colonies. Also involved were Hippolyte Bellangé, Nicolas-Toussaint Charlet, Charles François Daubigny, Adrien Dauzats, Henri Émy, Charles Émile Jacque, Alcide Joseph Lorentz, Ernest Meissonier and Octave Penguilly; truly a who's who of the French art of drawing at the time.

The copy on China paper [no. 210], bound in simple contemporary half leather, is of the greatest rarity: Léopold Carteret knew of only three or four of such complete copies. Even more spectacular

is the copy - the only known - in which all the almost 2000 illustrations appear in vivid original colouring. Apparently, this was Curmers own sample copy. Also on show is the supplementary volume Le Prisme, which all subscribers of the 422 individual issues received as 'loyalty bonuses', as well as all original wrappers [no. 211].

The copy on China paper, which originally belonged to Gavarni himself, represents a bibliophilic ideal: here the vast majority of the over 400 avant la lettre printed plates received lengthy captions by the artist himself. On top of that, the collector Paul Sébastien Gallimard extended the copy even further by adding a wealth of exceptional material: a whole extra volume containing 67 mostly colored originals by 21 different artists, including Daumier's famous depiction of the Défenseur officieux en justice de paix, two watercolors by Gavarni, two pencil drawings each by Tony Johannot and Charlet, three pen drawings

by Grandville, four by Henri Monnier, as well as the original envelope design by Adrien Féart, and more. A near-complete second set of coloured plates on vellum paper was bound into three volumes, along with over 500 proofs of plates and wood engravings on China paper, and all original wrappers in two further volumes [no. 512].

Gallimard also added the Le Prisme (again including proofs) and the two volumes of the parallel work Les Anglais peints par eux-mêmes.

When Carteret saw this ensemble, he was lost for words: “this copy is a miracle”.

Linking the original drawings to the prints in various states stands the collection of 18 printing blocks in glass frames. Among them is the allegorical depiction of the publisher as Mephisto [no. 216] and the allegorical frontispiece of France [no. 214] as well as the two-part model for the wrappers of the fascicles, and the frontispiece to volume I [no. 213], which Grandville parodied in the poster for his Scènes de la vie.

– 26 –

XII. Goethe as Starting Point

Faust

The Sufferings of Young Werther

The French view of the German literature of the time was decisively shaped by an edition of Goethe's Faust with lithographs by Eugène Delacroix (1828). His manner of depiction was revolutionary, especially in contrast to the German pictorial tradition of Peter von Cornelius and Moritz Retzsch, which was steeped in Biedermeier sentimentality. Delacroix placed the gloomy and demonic at the center of his pictorial statements, and his depiction of Mephisto, to this day, remains the iconographic standard. After seeing two early proofs, Goethe himself sensed that Delacroix was the right artist to "create images that no one could have imagined".

By 1845, Johannot had already illustrated two editions of Goethe's The Sufferings of Young Werther (Hetzel and Crapelet). Compared to the theatricality of the 1825 edition, which included four etchings after René Théodore Berthon [no. 261], Johannot’s illustrations favoured the romantic-contemplative depictions of domestic life. But while the Hetzel edition shows the characters in costumes and interiors that correspond to the novella’s setting in the 18th century, the Crapelet edition updates the temporal setting to the late Biedermeier period.

Only in a few excessively rare copies, the plates appear on China paper in a variety of tints: light and medium gray, straw, pink, and three different shades of blue. The colour assignment varies in these copies; here we see the copy from the collection of Pierre-Antoine Berryer in a mosaic binding by Dunezat [no. 267]. An album of only the lithographs printed on larger white laid paper [no. 268], also in our collection, makes the illustrations appear even more monumental.

In 1847, Tony Johannot created nine etchings for a new Faust edition, considered by Johannot's biographer Aristide Marie to be "the best inspired by Goethe's masterpiece", with the definitive depictions of Faust, Gretchen and Mephisto. Eugène Paillet's copy [no. 269], which also includes the proof engravings, was additionally adorned with further suites by Moritz Retzsch, Wenzel Pobuda, and Adolph Lalauze.

We show here the copy once owned by Henry Houssaye and Armand Ripault [no. 263], it is bound in the publisher’s morocco binding.

Of the copies of the Crapelet edition in this display, one belonged to Princess Clémentine d'Orléans, the youngest daughter of King Louis-Philippe I, and it includes four complete sets of the plates, each representing a different stage of printing, as well as 27 additional engravings, including six portraits of Goethe [no. 265]. The second copy, in a binding

by Trautz-Bauzonnet [no. 266], belonged to the edition’s translator, Henri-Noël-François Huchet de la Bédoyère. It is printed on vellum with exceptionally wide margins, and features not only the engravings in three stages, but also the four original wash drawings

by Tony Johannot.

In its entirety, this Goethe ensemble is an outstanding example of the Franco-German cultural exchange that spans the arc from the 18th to the middle of the 19th century, from Sturm und Drang to Romanticism, and from Biedermeier to historicism.

– 28 –

XIII. Gustave Doré’s Illustration for Rabelais and Balzac’s Droll Stories

In the time of the Second Empire of Napoleon III (1852 to 1870), it was none other than the incredibly versatile and inexhaustible Gustave Doré who took up a central position in French book illustration - even though he himself would have rather worked as a "free" artist. Out of his numerous works in our collection, we have picked two editions for this display, which in the history of their publications already represent a significant time span and are among his finest and most successful.

It was the unruly days of the early modern period of the Renaissance that had once brought forth the works of François Rabelais. Many years later, in the very different time of the 19th century, a 22 year old Gustave Doré set about illustrating Rabelais’s novel about the giants Gargatua et Pantagruel, creating around 100 images that oscillate between the whimsical and the uncanny, between realism and fantasy. Two decades after this first 1854 edition, Doré was given the opportunity to approach the subject again and at a larger scale: in 1873, Garnier published a huge luxury edition with roughly 700 illustrations. The copy presented here [no. 528] is simply untouchable in its significance and rarity: it is the only copy printed on strong white calf parchment, a material which in and of itself conjures up the atmosphere of Rabelais’s Renaissance. Once owned by the publisher Garnier himself, the copy was bound by Émile Mercier.

After his work on the Rabelais novel, it only made sense that Doré would in 1855 also illustrate Balzac’s Droll Stories (Les contes drolatiques), since those tales were written in the same archaic voice of the laughing and life-affirming Renaissance man as Rabelais’s text. Maybe these tales particularly resonated with Doré because they reminded him of the mysterious atmosphere of his childhood, which he had spent in the middle of the medieval city of Strasbourg.

Léopold Carteret regarded the more than 400 wood engravings produced for this edition as Doré’s masterpiece. This display shows two copies on China paper. The first comes in a green morocco binding by Reymann [no. 26], which graced the libraries of the collectors Charles Bouret, Antoine Vautier, and Raphaël Esmerian.

The second copy [no. 27] was bound in dark red morocco by Petit and used to belong to Balzac’s wife, Eweline Hanska!

But even later editions of this sought-after work are outstanding bibliophilic prizes: for example the copy of the 1861 edition on China paper in a mosaic binding by Petit, from the collections of Maurice Escoffier, as well as Licin and André Tissot-Dupont [no. 28], or the 1873 edition which we present in the copy on uncut China paper, bound by Asper in a luminous pink morocco, which was once owned by the President of the National Council of Switzerland, Adrien Lachenal [no. 30].

– 30 –