Item #01866 Jadis et aujourd’hui. Henry MONNIER.
Jadis et aujourd’hui.
Jadis et aujourd’hui.
Jadis et aujourd’hui.
Jadis et aujourd’hui.
Jadis et aujourd’hui.
Jadis et aujourd’hui.
Jadis et aujourd’hui.

Jadis et aujourd’hui.

Paris: Delpech, Editeur et Imprimeur en Lithographie, 1829. Item #01866

“Then” and “Now”—
Eighteen Scarce Hand-Colored Lithographed Plates
By Le Maitre Monnier

MONNIER, Henri. Jadis et aujourd’hui. Paris: Delpech, 1829.

Title from front wrapper. Oblong folio (Plate size: 10 3/4 x 14 inches; 274 x 356 mm.; Wrapper size: 11 5/8 x 16 1/8 inches; 296 x 410 mm.). Eighteen hand-colored lithographed plates, depicting bankruptcy, childhood, dressing, the boudoir, a physician, an attorney, the promenade, an evening gathering, etc. ,”then” and “now.”

Loose, as issued, in the original cream-colored lithographed wrappers. Spine of wrappers neatly repaired. The plates are very clean, with only minimal edge browning. A wonderful copy of this extremely scarce series of plates.

Very scarce, with just two copies in libraries and institutions worldwide: Kunstbibli Staatliche Museen Zu Berlin (Germany), and The Morgan Library & Museum (NY, USA). The Morgan Library copy appears to be uncolored.

“Between 1825 and 1827 Monnier passed much of his time in London, where he collaborated with Lami in what was to become the Voyage en Angleterre. On his return to Paris he embarked on a series of albums in which he recorded the manners and humors of the city with unprecedented profusion. Between 1826 and 1830 he satisfied the insatiable demand for his designs with almost 500 lithographs, nearly all of which were drawn with a pen and colored by hand. For each design he himself colored a master print and carefully supervised its subsequent preparation…Some of the salient titles in his human comedy may be mentioned. There are potpourris like Recréations du coeur et de l’esprit, Paris vivant, and Rencontres Parisiennes. Macédoine pittoresque. There are more closely focussed surveys like Les grisettes, Moeurs administratives, Galerie théâtrale, Boutiques de Paris, and Six Quartiers de Paris. There are suites like Jadis et aujourd’hui and Les contrastes, which take their departure from comparisons in time or of manners…Monnier was a satirist with a difference. His attitude towards his subjects hardly varies. His aim was to set down what he saw with elegance and precision, but with no overt interpretation or judgment”(Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book, p. 199).

The Plates:
1. Jadis. Les Banqueroutiers.
2. Aujourd’hui. Banqueroutiers.
3. Jadis. Le Complément des Etude.
4. Aujourd’hui. Le Complément des Etudes.
5. Jadis. L’Enfance.
6. Aujourd’hui. L’Enfance.
7. Jadis. La Toilette.
8. Aujourd’hui. La Toilette.
9, Jadis. Un Boudoir.
10. Aujourd’hui. Un Boudoir.
11. Jadis. Un Médecin.
12. Aujourd’hui. Un Médecin.
13. Jadis. Un Procureur.
14. Aujourd’hui. Etude d’avoué.
15. Jadis. Une Promenade.
16. Aujourd’hui. Une Promenade.
17. Jadis. Une Soirée.
18. Aujourd’hui. Une Soirée.

Rahir, p. 548. Marie 399-416.

Price: $5,800.00