Colour Plate & Illustrated
[MONNIER, Henry, illustrator].
Th[eatre] des Variétés.
Paris: [n.d., ca. 1829]. 4to., (10 5/8 x 7 5/8 inches; 268 x 193mm), six hand-coloured lithographed plates. The final plate is in two states, one uncoloured. Plates lithographed by E. Ardit. All plates mounted on guards. Bound in at front is an etched portrait of Monnier, dated 1840, in two states, one hand-coloured, one uncoloured, and an autograph letter signed by Monnier, dated 1844. Nineteenth-century quarter brown morocco, ruled in gilt, over marbled boards. Smooth spine decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt. Marbled endpapers. Minor rubbing to board edges. An excellent copy, uniquely presented.
These illustrations were a possible interpretation of L'Espionne, episode de 1808, en cinq parties . . . , a play published in 1829, and written by M. M. A. Dartois and Charles Dupeuty, however, no published copies of this play have been found bound with these illustrations. "As a boy Monnier had been fond of fairs and popular entertainments, and in maturity he was fascinated by everything having to do with the stage. Monnier's command of this little world is authoritative, and he presents it with vivacity" (Ray). A contemporary and peer of Dumas, Balzac, Stendahl, Merimée, and Delacroix, his humour was sought in the salons of Paris. In addition to providing cariactures of everyday life in Paris, he also designed illustrations for the titles pages of Stendahl's Le Rouge et le Noir, 1831, and Balzac's Le Medécin de campagne, 1833. Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book, 135.
Price: £ 1000
US Dollar Price: $ 1990
Stock Number: 74440