René Perrout - Les images d'Épinal - 1912

A rare complete copy of this limited edition / first edition - includes the scarce 'Napoleon' plate. This is the deluxe edition of the review of the Épinal images. Limited to only 300 copies, this is #171. The original cloth covered stiff card boards are in very good condition. There is a little darkening to the boards. Blue cloth spine, with no titles. A touch of edgewear only. In sheets, as issued, in the publisher’s cloth portfolio (one of the ties lacking) Internally, the contents are loose in sheets. In excellent condition, with factional marking only. This scarce edition included 207 engravings within the text (149 of which are printed in colour). There are also 44 full page plates outside the text. Printed on high quality Arches paper, these include 29 double sheets and three quadruple sheets. Most of the plates were printed from the original wood blocks, but a few were reengraved by the 'Établissement Les Arts Graphiques Modernes' in Nancy. The hand colouring for the plates was done by A. Collovald of Nancy. Our copy is complete, which is most unusual, and includes the Napoleon plate - which is often missing from available copies. 180 pages. 34 x 26 cm. Also included is an attractive loose advertisement for a collection of Napoléonic imagery, which was in preparation. This is printed in a lovely coloured foil. This is a very rare and comprehensive study on the Épinal print production which is hardly ever on the market. The 1920 edition is most often found, but this 1912 edition was printed in 300 numbered copies only. Épinal prints on popular subjects were rendered in bright sharp colours, and sold in France in the 19th century. They owe their name to the fact that the first publisher of such images - Jean-Charles Pellerin - having been born in Épinal, named the printing house he founded in 1796, Imagerie d'Épinal. René Perrout (1868-1920), was a Lorraine writer who was passionate about folk art. In French, une image d’Épinal means a simplified, idealised, sentimental picture of something: “a chocolate-box view”, as we might say. The phrase comes from these prints. Épinal prints did a great deal to create the Napoleonic legend This copy has the Napoleon plate, often missing, and a loose colour-printed advertisement for a planned collection of Napoleonic imagery. Most of the plates were printed from the original Épinal woodblocks, and they were coloured by hand with stencils First edition, the deluxe issue, one of 300 numbered copies on Arches paper

Estimation:€170

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