Les Fleurs Animees

1847. GRANDVILLE, J.J. Les Fleurs Animées. Introduction by Alphonse Karr. Text by Taxile Delord. Two volumes. I: 260 pp., illustrated with an engraved frontispiece and 28 plates all coloured by hand. II: [4], 102, iv, [105]-236 (i.e., 136 pp.), illustrated with an engraved frontispiece and 22 plates coloured by hand, plus 2 botanical plates. 4to, 264 x 178 mm., bound in original publisher's illustrated wrappers, in chemise and board slipcases. Paris: Gabriel de Gonet, 1847. Exceptionally fine copy, in the original publisher's wrappers of this true classic of floral surrealism. Of all his works Les Fleurs Animées was Grandville's own personal favorite. In the fifty hand-coloured plates Grandville portrays a flower or plant metamorphosized into a lady clad in the petals or leaves particular to that flower or plant. Further, his flower turned human exhibits the human personality traits which Grandville perceives as characteristic of the species he is illustrating. Les Fleurs Animées is "a little world created [and] governed by its own laws, which was full of significance for Grandville" (Ray). This copy is preserved in spectacular condition as fresh as the day it was published. Renonciat, Grandville p. 287. Carteret III, 286. Ray 198. Plesch 241. Sello, Grandville: Das Gesamte Werk II, 1500-1508.