Sims Reed Rare Books×

Carte Vivante du Restaurateur

Grandville

Paris. Aubert. c. 1831 / 1832
Sold
One of the rarest of Grandville's lithograph series in which the clients of a restaurant order food matching their physiognomies.

Grandville had intended initially to title his acerbic suite 'L'homme expliqué par ses goûts et ses moeurs' but the eventual choice accentuates the inherent irony, the captions for each plate reading as both the food ordered and labels for the characters depicted.

'Dans 'La Carte vivante du restaurateur', Grandville continue les jeux d'analogie qu'il avait commencés avec 'Les Métamorphoses du jour'. Au lieu de rapprocher les hommes des animaux, il établit un rapport entre les clients d'un restaurant et les plats qu'ils commandent.' (Clive Getty).

This scarce series by Grandville was issued without a cover or a title.

[SR / BF 15; Rebeyrat 290].
[12 leaves]. Small oblong folio. (262 x 344 mm). 12 lithographs by Panetier after Grandville, each within ruled frames with series title above, title beneath and numbered 'Pl. 1' to 'Pl. 12' at upper right, each with additional colour by hand. Full later blue straight-grained morocco, boards ruled in gilt to surround additional decorative rules in gilt and lozenge in blind, banded spine with title gilt and decorative tooling in five compartments, marbled endpapers, red speckled edges.
#47388

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