Souvenir 1894

1894. SKETCHBOOK. Souvenir 1894. A collection of 99 original pen and ink drawings, some of which are cariacatures. 8vo, 195 x 146 mm, bound in full elaborately gilt contemporary red morocco, stamped "P de R" under a coronet. Paris, 1894. A unique album of 99 original ink drawings, sharply satirical in tone and executed in a confident hand reminiscent of Emmanuel Poiré (Caran d'Ache). The drawings vividly document Parisian political and social life during the final decade of the 19th century. Notably, there are a series of twenty caricatures centered on the Panama Canal Scandal, the most explosive financial corruption crisis of the century, causing hundreds of thousands of French citizens to lose their investments. Rendered with biting wit, these portraits lampoon leading figures involved in the affair, including Cornelius Herz-shown incongruously as a cherubic child and René Goblet as a pugnacious boxing kangaroo. Other recognizable figures include: Gustave Eiffel, Jacques de Reinach, Léon Bourgeois, Georges Clemenceau, Henri Brisson, Auguste Burdeau, Ernest Vallé, Eugène Spuller, Jules Develle, and Alexandre Ribot. These images reflect not only the public outcry but also the wave of antisemitic sentiment inflamed by press coverage of Jewish financiers' roles, setting the ideological groundwork for the Dreyfus Affair. The book also features ten scenes depicting President Sadi Carnot's leisure activities at Fontainebleau, shortly before his assassination by an anarchist in the summer of 1894. Additional drawings present lively genre scenes of Parisian street life, including fashion plates, ballroom gatherings, carnival revelry, soirées, a zoo outing and cafés. We have been unable to identify P. de R.