Wraps
Prouvy-Thiant (Nord)
by Nolhac, Pierre de
Prouvy-Thiant (Nord): Draeger, Imprimerie. . Wraps. Near Fine. N.d., circa 1929. 4to. 32 by 25 cm. vi, 30 pp. Fabulous trade catalogue, or promotion, for French manufacturer primarily of roofing tiles but also interior tiles and hydraulic pipes. The brochure is of interest not just for its supposed subject, but also for the beauty of its production, its illustration, its Gallic panache. Seldom has such a lavish aesthetic sensibility been directed at what might be regarded as a prosaic subject such as building materials, but then, the brochure's point is to show how non-prosaic such things really are. To that end, the company enlisted such an illustrious belletrist as Pierre de Nolhac of the Academie Francaise to write an introductory piece. Eternit was a company with international reach, having plants in Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland and the United States (St. Louis) at the time. The many color illustrations, some mounted plates, are done with a pleasing faint impressionistic style, often a sunny palette, and an ineffable lushness. The homes depicted, whether modest or somewhat grander, are all likely to incite one's domestic fantasies. Light wear and trivial soiling to the wraps. Clean, tight and bright otherwise.
(Inventory #: 003641)