Moeurs Parisiennes

Paris: Chez Gihaut frères, 1828. Henry Monnier's Rare Album of Parisian Manners

MONNIER, Henry. Moeurs Parisiennes… [Parisian Manners]. Paris: Chez Gihaut frères, 1828.

First edition. Quarto (10 7/8 x 8 1/2 inches; 276 x 216 mm.). Ten humorous hand colored plates lithographed by de Villain. Minimal, mainly marginal foxing, otherwise near fine.

Recently bound by Roger Devauchelle in full violet cloth, black leather label lettered in gilt on front board. Publishers pink printed wrapper/title bound in before the plates.

A very scarce little album - we have only seen this title once before. According to OCLC there (truncated) are just two copies located in institutions worldwide (Herzogin Anna Amalia Biblithek Klassik, and Kunstbiblio Staatliche Museen Zu Berlin) .

The plates:

1. "Les Sots sont ici bas pour nos menus plaisirs" - (The fools are down here for our pleasures)
2. "Un Futur" - (A future)
3. "Une Education à faire" - (An education…)
4. "Inutilités" - (Utilities)
5. "On ne vous voit plus Milord!." - (We can not see you My Lord!)
6. "La rafraichissemens sont pour les dames" - (The refreshments are for the ladies)
7. "Une demoiselle à produire" - (Introducing a young lady)
8. "Des Mamans de Comédie" - (The mothers of comedy)
9. "Monsieur mon Fils est-il chez lui?…" - (Sir, my son is home)
10. "Le Contentement de sa personne" - (Contented People)

Henry Monnier (1799-1877) was a French dramatist, caricaturist and actor. Between 1827 and 1832, he produced several albums of lithographs, representing the customs and features of his contemporaries.

“Between 1825 and 1827 Monnier passed much of his time in London, where he collaborated with Lami in what was to become the Voyage en Angleterre. On his return to Paris he embarked on a series of albums in which he recorded the manners and humors of the city with unprecedented profusion. Between 1826 and 1830 he satisfied the insatiable demand for his designs with almost 500 lithographs, nearly all of which were drawn with a pen and colored by hand. For each design he himself colored a master print and carefully supervised its subsequent preparation… Some of the salient titles in his human comedy may be mentioned. There are potpourris like Recréations du coeur et de l’esprit, Paris vivant, and Rencontres Parisiennes. Macédoine pittoresque. There are more closely focussed surveys like Les grisettes, Moeurs administratives, Galerie théâtrale, Boutiques de Paris, and Six Quartiers de Paris. There are suites like Jadis et aujourd’hui and Les contrastes, which take their departure from comparisons in time or of manners…Monnier was a satirist with a difference. His attitude towards his subjects hardly varies. His aim was to set down what he saw with elegance and precision, but with no overt interpretation or judgment”(Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book, p. 199).

Marie, Henry Monnier, #115-124; Melcher, p.31 (note). (Inventory #: 04508)