Chansons de P.J. Béranger Anciennes, Nouvelles et Inédites,
Paris: Baudouin Frères, Éditeurs, 1828. Item #05079
One of the Finest Surviving Copies of Béranger's Great Illustrated Masterpiece
Complete in the Original Ten Livraisons, Preserving Every Publisher's Printed Wrapper,
The Publisher's Presentation Inscription, and Two Complete Suites of Henri Monnier's
Contemporary Hand-Colored Lithographs
MONNIER, Henri, illustrator. DEVÉRIA, Achille, illustrator. BÉRANGER, Pierre-Jean. Chansons de P. J. Béranger Anciennes, Nouvelles et Inédites, avec des Vignettes de Devéria et des Dessins coloriés d'Henri Monnier. Suivies des Procès Intentés à l'Auteur. Paris: Baudouin Frères, Éditeurs, 1828.
First edition, preserved complete in the ten original publisher's printed livraisons, each retaining its original pale green decorative wrapper, with the contemporary presentation inscription of the printer and publisher Rignoux on the opening wrapper.
Octavo (8 7/8 x 5 3/4 inches; 225 x 147 mm.). Illustrated with forty magnificent contemporary hand-colored lithographs by Henri Monnier and hundreds of wood-engraved text vignettes by Achille Devéria. Accompanied by the exceedingly rare complete duplicate suite of all forty contemporary hand-colored lithographs, likewise preserved within the publisher's original printed wrappers, bringing the total to eighty original contemporary hand-colored lithographs. The front wrapper of the First Livraison bears the contemporary presentation inscription of the printer-publisher Rignoux.
Publisher's original pale green printed wrappers, each with its own distinctive wood-engraved vignette. A superb, entirely unsophisticated survival. The principal work remains complete in all ten original livraisons, while the two complete suites of Monnier's lithographs are preserved separately, one housed in an original Second Livraison wrapper and the duplicate suite in an original Fifth Livraison wrapper, exactly as issued.
Together with:
BÉRANGER, Pierre-Jean. Poniatowski. Hatons-Nous. Chansons Dédiées au Général Lafayette, Premier Grenadier de la Garde Polonaise. Suivies du 14 Juillet 1829, et des Couplets à mes Amis devenus Ministres. Paris: À l'Agence du Comité…, 1831.
First edition. Octavo (8 7/8 x 5 3/4 inches; 225 x 147 mm.). [1]-23, [1, blank]. Preserved in its original blue printed wrapper.
The entire collection housed in a handsome three-quarter green morocco clamshell case.
Pierre-Jean de Béranger was the most celebrated songwriter, political poet, and popular literary figure of nineteenth-century France. His chansons were sung not only in theaters and cafés but in workshops, military barracks, taverns, and private drawing rooms throughout the country, becoming inseparable from everyday French life. Combining lyrical elegance with wit, patriotism, and fearless political commentary, Béranger exercised an influence unmatched by any French popular poet of his generation. His repeated prosecutions and imprisonment under the Bourbon Restoration only increased his fame, transforming him into the literary voice of liberal France and one of the defining cultural figures of the nineteenth century.
The present work has long been regarded as the greatest illustrated edition of Béranger's songs. To accompany the text, the publishers assembled two of the foremost artists of the Romantic generation. Achille Devéria supplied hundreds of exquisitely engraved woodcut vignettes that enrich almost every page, while Henri Monnier created forty original lithographs that rank among the earliest masterpieces of French Romantic book illustration. Executed with Monnier's characteristic humanity, humor, and penetrating observation of everyday Parisian life, these compositions perfectly complement the spirit of Béranger's verse, capturing both its comic brilliance and its emotional warmth.
Although complete copies of the illustrated edition are themselves of the utmost rarity, the present example belongs to an altogether different order of survival.
Not only does it preserve all ten original publisher's livraisons, each retaining its fragile printed wrapper - ephemeral elements almost invariably discarded when nineteenth-century subscribers had their parts bound - but it also preserves the publisher's complete duplicate suite of Henri Monnier's forty contemporary hand-colored lithographs, likewise retained in their original wrappers exactly as issued. Such duplicate suites were intended for collectors wishing to preserve an additional set of illustrations, yet they were almost always separated, damaged, or discarded during the binding process. We have been unable to trace another copy preserving every original livraison together with both complete contemporary hand-colored suites.
The visual effect is simply extraordinary. The contemporary hand-coloring remains remarkably fresh and luminous throughout, delicately executed in the finest Parisian manner of the late Restoration. Together, the two complete suites comprise eighty original contemporary hand-colored lithographs, transforming the work into one of the most spectacular surviving monuments of French Romantic illustrated publishing.
The front wrapper of the First Livraison bears the contemporary presentation inscription of the printer and publisher Rignoux, providing an unusually appealing contemporary association with the publication itself. Equally remarkable is the survival of every original wrapper, preserving the work precisely as subscribers first received it in 1828. Such wrappers rank among the most ephemeral survivals of nineteenth-century publishing and are seldom encountered complete.
Henri Monnier's illustrations occupy a pivotal place in the history of French caricature. Produced before the celebrated Scènes Populaires and the works that established him as one of the supreme visual chroniclers of nineteenth-century Paris, they reveal an artist already in complete command of expressive characterization, theatrical composition, and psychological observation. These early lithographs anticipate the qualities that would later influence Honoré Daumier and define an entire generation of French Romantic satirical art. Together with Devéria's refined wood engravings, they constitute one of the great achievements of Romantic book illustration.
Accompanying the principal work is the scarce first edition of Poniatowski. Hatons-Nous., published in 1831 and preserved, like the Chansons, in its original printed wrapper. Dedicated to General Lafayette and inspired by the Polish struggle for national independence, it reflects the liberal political ideals that permeate so much of Béranger's writing. Its presence provides an exceptionally appropriate contemporary companion to the monumental illustrated edition while further enhancing the historical and bibliographical importance of the collection.
Few illustrated books of the Romantic period survive in anything approaching their original published state; fewer still preserve every ephemeral wrapper, and virtually none retain the publisher's complete duplicate suite of hand-colored plates. This extraordinary copy preserves not merely Béranger's greatest illustrated work but the entire experience of its publication exactly as nineteenth-century collectors first acquired it. It stands as a landmark of French Romantic literature, political history, music, and illustrated book production, and is unquestionably among the finest surviving copies of Henri Monnier's first great lithographic masterpiece.
"Monnier also illustrated Béranger's Chansons, creating numerous series over time that reflect his admiration for Béranger's work. His lithographs and early watercolors, despite their small size, demonstrate his extreme finesse and simplicity. Monnier's bright, flat colors, encircled by precise pen or pencil strokes, bring his subjects to life, with values and shadows indicated by more or less dense hatching. Some watercolors from this period appear almost as pen drawings enhanced with color due to the prominence of the pen work." (Marie.)
KVK locates no complete copies. OCLC records only a single complete institutional copy, at Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée, France.
References: Champfleury, Monnier, p. 364; Escoffier, Le Mouvement Romantique, 675; Marie, 653–692; Vicaire I, 402.
Price: $13,500.00