Paris (France)

New illustrated edition with 232 figures, principally by Borel. Volume XIV contains an additional suite by Moreau, a suite by Marillier and another anonymous suite. Copy on vellum paper, the figures on heavy vellum. At the end of the publisher's notice, a leaf with the price of works: the 20 volumes in-18, fine paper, in wrappers with 18 engravings...30Fr. The same with 212 engravings, in wrappers...60Fr. The same, 17 volumes, deluxe vellum paper, figures from first proofs...120Fr. The volumes may be purchased separately by works. While at Princeton University and the Royal Library of Denmark one finds only the edition in 20 volumes with 18 engravings, this copy proves more desirable in 17 volumes on vellum. According to the British Library copy, the edition which announced 212 engravings offered only 205, so the others were added.
Contemporary half Russia leather binding. Smooth spine decorated with 4 small concentric fleurons and roulettes. Red paper on boards imitating long-grained morocco. Some rubbing, notably to corners. Scattered foxing. Lacking the table for volume X. Some leaves protruding. Uncut copy.
Details of the collection: Vol. I-VII, L'ami des enfans et de l'adolescence. Vol. VIII, Le livre de famille, ou Entretiens familiers sur les connaissances les plus nécessaires à la jeunesse; Vol. IX-X, Bibliothèque des villages. Vol. XI, Introduction a la connoissance de la nature, imitée de l'anglois; Vol. XII-XIII, Choix de lectures pour les enfans, ou Recueil de contes, d'anecdotes et de traits de vertu, choisis des meilleurs auteurs. Vol. XIV, Idylles, romances, et autres poésies de Berquin; Vol. XV-XVI, Sandford et Merton, imité de l'anglois. Vol. XVII, Le petit Grandisson, imité du hollandois.
The author Berquin (1747-1791) specialized very early in children's literature, being indeed the first to have done so. His children's books enjoyed great popularity and were very frequently reprinted throughout the nineteenth century. English and German children of the late eighteenth century knew Berquin's work very well. The greater part of l'ami des enfants consists of short theatrical pieces (historical, moral, childish...), but one also finds numerous short tales and romances, letters, as well as a shipwreck narrative. Thus one counts in the general table of contents 106 entries. L'ami de l'adolescence also contains moral theatrical pieces, and other pieces more narrative or more clearly pedagogical; one should note La relation d'un naufrage sur l'île Royale, and le Système du monde mis à la portée de cet âge. Certain works are entirely devoted to instruction and pedagogy, such as L'introduction à la connaissance de la nature (notably through animal figures), or the Entretiens sur les connaissances... Moreover, it is not that Berquin was the first to extend this literature that is important, it is rather that one can situate at this period the introduction of childhood into our cultures, and Berquin is precisely an eloquent testimony to this. Furthermore, it was undoubtedly among the first times that one found so many children represented in illustration.

First collective edition, one of the 23 numbered copies on vélin pur fil Lafuma Navarre, the only deluxe copies ("grands papiers").
Rare and very nice copy.

Original color lithograph printed on fine laid paper. Dry stamp of the printer at bottom right of the plate.
A few tiny pinholes at the four corners and in the upper margin of the poster, without consequence.
Superb French monthly publication, Maîtres de l'Affiche, appeared between 1895 and 1900 on the initiative of Jules Chéret.
Each issue of the review includes four posters reproduced in bell format and in chromolithography, each presenting a dry stamp of authentication.
Very handsome copy of this poster by the English painter Maurice Greiffenhagen for the review Illustrated Pall Mall Budget.

Original double color print, printed on laid paper, signed at bottom right of the plate. 

Original engraving created for the illustration of La Gazette du bon ton, one of the most beautiful and influential fashion magazines of the 20th century, celebrating the talent of French creators and artists in the full bloom of Art Deco. 

Famous fashion magazine founded in 1912 by Lucien Vogel, La Gazette du bon ton was published until 1925 with an interruption during the War from 1915 to 1920, due to the mobilization of its editor-in-chief. It consists of 69 issues printed in only 2000 copies and is illustrated notably with 573 color plates and 148 sketches representing models by great couturiers. From their publication, these luxurious publications “ addressed bibliophiles and worldly aesthetes ” (Françoise Tétart-Vittu “ La Gazette du bon ton ” in Dictionnaire de la mode, 2016). Printed on fine laid paper, they use a typeface specially created for the magazine by Georges Peignot, the Cochin character, adopted in 1946 by Christian Dior. The prints are created using the metal stencil technique, heightened in colors and some highlighted in gold or palladium.
The adventure begins in 1912 when Lucien Vogel, a man of society and fashion - he had already participated in the magazine Femina - decides to found with his wife Cosette de Brunhoff (sister of Jean, the father of Babar) the Gazette du bon ton whose subtitle was then “ Art, modes et frivolités ”. Georges Charensol reports the words of the editor-in-chief : “ In 1910, he observes, there existed no fashion journal truly artistic and representative of the spirit of its time. I was therefore thinking of making a luxury magazine with truly modern artists [...] I was certain of success because for fashion no country can rival France. ” (“ Un grand éditeur d'art. Lucien Vogel ” in Les Nouvelles littéraires, n°133, May 1925). The magazine's success is immediate, not only in France, but also in the United States and South America.
Originally, Vogel thus assembled a group of seven artists : André-Édouard Marty and Pierre Brissaud, followed by Georges Lepape and Dammicourt ; and finally his friends from the École des beaux-arts who are George Barbier, Bernard Boutet de Monvel, or Charles Martin. Other talents quickly join the team : Guy Arnoux, Léon Bakst, Benito, Boutet de Monvel, Umberto Brunelleschi, Chas Laborde, Jean-Gabriel Domergue, Raoul Dufy, Édouard Halouze, Alexandre Iacovleff, Jean Émile Laboureur, Charles Loupot, Charles Martin, Maggie Salcedo. These artists, mostly unknown when Lucien Vogel calls upon them, will later become emblematic and sought-after artistic figures. These same illustrators create the drawings for the Gazette's advertisements.
The plates highlight and sublimate the dresses of seven creators of the time : Lanvin, Doeuillet, Paquin, Poiret, Worth, Vionnet and Doucet. The couturiers provide exclusive models for each issue. Nevertheless, some of the illustrations feature no real model, but only the idea that the illustrator has of the fashion of the day.
La Gazette du bon ton is a decisive stage in the history of fashion. Combining aesthetic demands and visual unity, it brings together for the first time the great talents of the worlds of arts, letters and fashion and imposes, through this alchemy, a completely new image of woman, slender, independent and bold, also carried by the new generation of couturiers Coco Chanel, Jean Patou, Marcel Rochas...
Taken over in 1920 by Condé Montrose Nast, the Gazette du bon ton would largely inspire the new composition and aesthetic choices of the “ petit journal mourant ” that Nast had bought a few years earlier : Vogue magazine.