| Real First Issue – So Iconic it Inspired an Identical Reprint|
 

Au Bureau du Journal des Dames | à Paris [1798-1808] | from 10,8 x 17,6 cm to 28,1 x 18,8 cm | 52 loose plates under mount and custom slipcase

Set of 52 original numbered plates, etched and watercolored at the time, mounted in pairs under mats.

Loose leaves housed in a red half calf slipcase (early 20th century), red shagreen boards.

The plates vary in size and paper stock, as was often the case with La Mésangère's publications. Unbound engraved title on a bifolium, printed separately, absent from most copies. It is replaced here by its identical reprint by Gosselin (1893-1903), on antique watermarked paper and bearing the publisher's “G” mark, characteristic feature of this reprint made a century later. All the plates, however, are in first issue from the early 19th century. They do not bear the “G” added by Gosselin to the lower corners of the reprint engravings (added in the illustration itself or close to the plate mark, occasionally bearing a date next to the “G”).
Some foxing, a few rare engravings showing traces of adhesive on the reverse. Plate 42 restored without loss of paper. A green stain in plate 11 probably due to the watercolor of the landscape. Twelve plates are trimmed to the plate mark. Plate 37 is trimmed around the black border. More pronounced foxing in the margins of some plates.

A rare and precious complete suite of 52 original costume prints from the Directoire and First French Empire.
Deemed introuvable by Gaudriault in his study on French womens fashion engravings. The only complete set in first issue on the market.

This series of elegant silhouettes was published on the initiative of the bookseller Sellèque and Pierre La Mésangère, clergyman who turned to the press after the turmoil of the Revolution. In 1800, La Mésangère became director of the renowned Journal des Dames et des Modes, a pioneering publication in the history of the women's press, and produced a few standalone series, such as this one, aimed at “a category of connoisseurs with an interest in a more refined and luxurious interpretation of fashion than that offered by the plates in the newspapers” (Philippe Séguy, Histoire des modes sous l'Empire). The plates are by Philibert-Louis Debucourt, painter of French elegance since 1787 and a regular contributor to the Journal des Modes. The first 38 date from the Revolutionary Year VIII, the next 12 from Year IX and the last two from 1808.
Through these 52 costumes unfolds a veritable “grammar of clothing” – a fashion language in which Parisian women were particularly well versed. Shepherdesses, sultanas, Etruscan princesses... the trend leaned towards exoticism, even eroticism, with the occasional bared breast. We find styles brought to the fore by the Merveilleuses following the Revolution, inspired by Antiquity and mythology — gowns of iridescent muslin, light and form-fitting, alongside coats, bandeau hairstyles, and Grecian tunics. Captions often provide detailed descriptions of meticulously colored attire, hairstyles, and headwear. Some figures even double as biting social commentary verging on caricature, featuring characters such as the recurring theatrical figure of Turcaret, or genre scenes teeming with love intrigues.
This series also stands out in the history of color engraving – some plates bear small black dots in the margins, indicating the mechanical process of color engraving by multiple intaglio plates. These marks, mentioned in Debucourt's catalogue raisonné (pp. 66–85) do not appear in later reprints. However, it appears this technique which “fell out of use at the dawn of the 19th century”, was combined here with hand-applied watercolor: “The era of hand-coloring began — and who would have predicted it? — with Debucourt, his Frascati and his Types after Carle Vernet! The “registration marks”, indicators of plate superimposition, disappear from the margins of prints” (Béraldi, Les Graveurs du XIXe siècle). The high quality of the coloring makes it arduous to determine whether mechanical assistance played a role or whether the black dots are merely remnants of a revolutionary but short-lived technique.
A superb and exceptionally rare complete gallery of portraits from a pivotal moment in both women's fashion and the history of color engraving.
Maurice Fenaille, L'Œuvre gravé de P.-L. Debucourt, 1899, pp. 71–122.
 

12 000 €

Réf : 87502

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