MONNIER, Henri

[Modes et Ridicules] & [Séries Anglaise]

Paris: Gihaut Frères, éditeurs, 1825. Item #05312

One of Henry Monnier's Earliest Works
Ten Superb Hand-Colored Lithograph Plates Depicting 'Absurd Fads'
Bound together with Four of the Plates from the 'Série Anglaise'

MONNIER, Henry, illustrator. [Modes et Ridicules] & [Séries Anglaise]. Paris: Gihaut Frères, éditeurs, 1825.

Large folio (13 3/8 x 9 5/8 inches; 340 x 244 mm.). Ten superb hand colored lithograph plates, all mounted on stubs. All plates with the small oval stamp of the printer "CH.M" (Charles Motte) in the lower right-hand corner.

Together with four additional plates from 'Série Anglaise' at end. The first plate a little foxed, otherwise clean.

Bound ca. 1925 in quarter red calf over marbled boards, smooth spine lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers.

A wonderful copy of an extremely scarce album with four superb additional lithographs at end.

The plates:

1. Avec beaucoup de plaisir, Monsieur! (With a lot of fun, sir!)
2. Voulez-vous me faire l'honneur, Mademoiselle?… (Will you do me the honor, Miss?)
3. Satisfaction personnelle. (Personal satisfaction)
4. Embarras de Soi-meme. (Self embarrassment)
5. Mes jours de danse sont passés!… (My dance days are over!…)
6. Mécontentement intérieur. (Domestic discontent)
7. Le Journal ne dit rien!… (The journal does not say anything!…)
8. Distraction.
9. Je ne trouve plus de danseur! (I cannot find a dance partner anymore!)
10. Un Chanteur de Romances. (A singer of Romances.)

According to OCLC there are only two copies in libraries and institutions worldwide: The Morgan Library & Museum (NY, USA) and Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek Klassik (Germany).

The four additional hand colored lithograph plates from the 'Série Anglaise' published in June 1825. The first plate "Discontented" is very similar to plate no. 6 "Mécontentement intérieur" - the remaining three are totally different images.

1. Discontented. (London, Birchin, 1825) (Marie 69)
2. "I cannot maintain all my Relations." (Marie 72)
3. "My dear Sir, how do you do"? "Really Sir, you have the advantage of me". (Marie 73)
4. More haste, worse speed! (London, Birchin, 1825) (Marie 74)

"The relatively small number of his lithographs published between 1825 and 1827 by various London editors indicates clearly enough that Monnier was not very successful in obtaining the popular favor and editorial support which would have established his reputation." (Edith Melcher. The Life and Times of Henry Monnier, p.34).

There are copies of plate numbers 1 & 3, in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France.

“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).

Marie, 76-85 & 69, 72, 73 & 74; Melcher, p.34.

Price: $8,500.00