L'empire des légumes. Mémoires de Cucurbitus Ier. Drôleries végétales

NUS Eugène & MERAY Antony
watercolor by VARIN Amédée
L'Empire des légumes. Mémoires de Cucurbitus Ier. Drôleries végétales
[The Empire of Vegetables: Memoirs of Cucurbitus Ier. Vegetable Drolleries]
G. de Gonet, Paris n. d. [1851],
19 x 26,7 cm, 20th-century full shagreen
First, rather rare edition, illustrated with a frontispiece and 24 plates finely engraved on steel with watercolor decoration (on papier fort), representing anthropomorphic vegetables in various situations, delightfully sketched by Amédée Varin. Each plate is a voyage of discovery, brimming with imagination, whimsy, and irony. One of the masterpieces of Romantic caricature.
20th-century full red shagreen. Spine in compartments with 4 open leaves. Author and title gilt. Upper board with angular leaves and the words “Drôleries végétales” in the center, last board with 4 anglaur leaves. Gilt edges. Very slight wear and tear at four top corners. All the engravings are protected by a serpente. Very fine copy, still fresh, with a few rare scattered foxing (spotting on pages 112 to 119).
Contemporary political and social satire. On the Boulevard des Maréchaux in Paris, the narrator discovers an unknown world, the empire of vegetables governed by Cucurbitus I, who can be clearly recognized as Napoleon III and his government. A prophetic satire since the French empire would be proclaimed on December 2, 1852, betraying the first act of universal suffrage that had elected it. Cucurbitus I is depicted as an oriental despot, dressed in the Turkish custom. Although the practice of satire produced many famous texts (Louis Reybaud and his Jérôme Paturot, Le Diable à Paris, Scènes de la vie privée des animaux), none sketched the portrait of Napoleon III and his politics so directly.
$ 1 800