Les Bohemiens de Paris

DAUMIER, Honore. Les Bohemiens de Paris. With 28 lithographs by Daumier. Folio. 345 x260 mm.,Matted, in a cloth folding case. Paris: Au Bureau de Journal Amusant & du Petit Journal pour Rire, [1840-1842]. Complete set of Daumier's "Les Bohémiens de Paris" series. All the prints in the present set are "sur blanc," i.e. printed individually on superior white wove paper, without the text of the Charivari journal on the verso. Because of the finer paper and printing methods, 'sur blanc' impressions are much more prized than those which appeared within the journal itself. Les Bohémiens de Paris figures prominently in Rumas' Daumier: 120 Great Lithographs, which especially reproduces and describes Plate 9 ("A Professional Sponger about to crash a fashionable Wedding Party"), Plate 15 ("A Sick-Nurse, the French equivalent of Dickens' Sairy Gamp"), and Plate 20 ("A Minor Actor in a small theater who plays Wealthy Monarchs though actually starving [here eating French Fries!]). Plates 1,3,5,6,7,11,12,14,23,24,25,26,27 belong to Delteil's 2nd state (of 3); The rest are all 3rd state. The first state (avant la lettre) are invariably described as "fort rare" and are now unfindable. In excellent condition. Delteil 822-849. BN, Fonds Français (Après 1800) Tom. V, p. 478 (No. 157).