Les Fleurs Animées, par J.-J. Grandville
Grandville, (Jean-Ignace-Everard Gérard). Delord, Taxile & Alphonse Karr. (Intro.)
Paris. Gabriel de Gonet, Editeur. 1847
The first issue of the first edition of Grandville's 'Les Fleurs Animées' in a splendid contemporary binding by Corfmat.
'After 'Un Autre Monde' the fifty-two coloured engravings of 'Les Fleurs Animées' are the chief example of Grandville's efforts to penetrate to the meaning objects like an 'intellectual miner' ... Though the images in the book are of Grandville's time, his manner of proceeding is that of an artist of the modern movement, exploring the same subject through a sequence of slight but significant variations ... A little world is created, governed by its own laws ... full of significance for Grandville and hence ... the reader ... '. (Gordon Ray).
The first issue of 'Les Fleurs Animées' is indicated by continuous pagination throughout the two volumes and is characterised too by the vivid colouring by hand of the illustrations. The present copy is bound by Corfmat (his signature is stamped to the spine), a contemporary of Grandville's active between 1825 and 1860 who produced a number of bindings for the Queen of France, Marie-Amélie, wife of Louis-Philippe, and others of the House of Orléans. A pencil note to the initial blank suggests that on the basis of Corfmat's work for Queen Marie-Amélie this copy may be that of the Queen herself although there is no other evidence for the assertion.
[SR / BF 93 / 94 / 95; Ray 198; Rebeyrat 287; Carteret 286; see Sophie Malavieille's 'Reliures et Cartonnages d'Editeur en France au XIXe Siècle'].
'After 'Un Autre Monde' the fifty-two coloured engravings of 'Les Fleurs Animées' are the chief example of Grandville's efforts to penetrate to the meaning objects like an 'intellectual miner' ... Though the images in the book are of Grandville's time, his manner of proceeding is that of an artist of the modern movement, exploring the same subject through a sequence of slight but significant variations ... A little world is created, governed by its own laws ... full of significance for Grandville and hence ... the reader ... '. (Gordon Ray).
The first issue of 'Les Fleurs Animées' is indicated by continuous pagination throughout the two volumes and is characterised too by the vivid colouring by hand of the illustrations. The present copy is bound by Corfmat (his signature is stamped to the spine), a contemporary of Grandville's active between 1825 and 1860 who produced a number of bindings for the Queen of France, Marie-Amélie, wife of Louis-Philippe, and others of the House of Orléans. A pencil note to the initial blank suggests that on the basis of Corfmat's work for Queen Marie-Amélie this copy may be that of the Queen herself although there is no other evidence for the assertion.
[SR / BF 93 / 94 / 95; Ray 198; Rebeyrat 287; Carteret 286; see Sophie Malavieille's 'Reliures et Cartonnages d'Editeur en France au XIXe Siècle'].
pp. (ii), 262; (ii). (i), (i), 263 - 364; iv, 62, (i); iv, 65 - 132. 2 vols. in 1. Large 8vo. (276 x 198 mm). Half-titles with printer's credit verso, elaborate engraved pictorial titles with additional colouring by hand and printed titles to each vol., printed text and 50 engraved plates all with additional colour by hand; the two parts of the supplement 'Botanique et Horticulture des Dames' with introduction by Karr and text by 'le Comte Foelix' with the two additional uncoloured engraved plates are also present. Full contemporary scarlet morocco by Corfmat with his signature to spine, boards with gilt rules to enclose large central stamp with ornate decorative motif composed of flowers, urns, trellises and so on surmounted by a bird eating from an urn, banded spine tooled in gilt and with gilt title in five compartments, turn-ins with elaborate decor, edges ruled in gilt, cream silk moiré doublures and matching endpapers, a.e.g.
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