LEFEBVRE-DURUFLÉ, N[oël Jacques]

Ports et Cotes de France de Dunkerque au Havre

Paris: Chez J.F. Ostervald, Editeur, 1833. Item #05540

The Ports and Coasts of France from Dunkirk to Le Havre
Deluxe Watercolor Issue with Fifty Superb Hand Colored Aquatint Plates

LEFEBVRE-DURUFLÉ, N[oël Jacques]. Ports et Cotes de France de Dunkerque au Havre par N. Lefebvre-Duruflé. Paris: Chez J.F. Ostervald, Editeur, 1833.

First edition, thus. Folio (14 1/14 x 10 5/8 inches; 362 x 270 mm.). [iv], [88] pp. Fifty superb aquatint views finely enhanced with watercolor and gouache, which actually look like original watercolors, measuring an average of 8 1/4 x 5 5/8 inches; 210 x 150 mm., all finished with gum arabic and mounted on full size leaves. All plates with original tissue-guards. Some mild marginal foxing to some leaves of text.

Full contemporary dark blue morocco, covers elaborately tooled in blind and bordered in gilt. Smooth spine decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt,marbled endpapers. A superb copy.

Note: The SPL copy (with rather different, and somewhat inferior coloring) has only 42 of the 50 plates. The additional plates in our copy are:
Numbers 21; 23; 24; 36; 40; 47; 48 & 49.

This exceptionally rare book was originally published between 1823 and 1825 under the title Excursion sur le Cotes et dans les Ports de Normandie (Abbey, Travel 92). "A book by the same author appeared in 1833, 4to, with the title Ports et Cote de France, de Dunkerque au Havre; this, as can be seen from the original title quoted by Brunet and Barbier, is a slight step nearer what was evidently at first the author's and editor's aim… Although the book was published in Paris for the French market, it will be noticed that four of the engravers (accounting for twenty-eight of the plates) and two of the artists, are English; men who were working in France, and especially Paris, at this remarkable time for English water-colour art. To take the artists first, seven of the plates… are after Bonington… while two… are after Copley Fielding, brother of the Fieldings who between them engraved twenty-two of the plates. Prideaux, page 276, says that all the plates are after Bonington…" (Abbey).

This is one of the most ambitious of the colored aquatint books edited by J.F. d'Ostervald. It is an expanded version of the original 1823-1825 edition and covers not only the coast of Normandie but rather than starting at Rouen, it begins at Dunkerque. The only other examples of this book are at the Art Institute of Chicago (62 plates?), and the S.P. Lohia example (40 plates only) - our copy has fifty. They are all mounted contemporaneously on similar paper and of the same size as the text leaves. The superb aquatint plates are exquisitely enhanced with watercolor and gouache and actually appear like original watercolors. They aesthetically and realistically represent scenes of the everyday life of Norman sailors and fishermen, some of which in locations that have been destroyed.

We have only been able to locate just three colored examples of this work - all but one with fewer plates than the the present copy. OCLC locates just one copy in libraries and institutions worldwide: Art Institute of Chicago (IL,US) with 62? plates). There is a copy with 42 hand colored plates only in the SPL Hand Coloured Rare Book Collection (1283). The last colored copy to appear at auction (40 plates only) was in 1896. The only uncolored copy to appear at auction (41 plates only) was in 1988.

Noël Jacques Lefebvre-Duruflé (1792-1877) was a French politician who became Minister of Agriculture and Commerce in the French Second Republic, and under the Second French Empire was Minister of Public Works.

The Plates:

1. Dunkerque. Entrée du Port + 2pp
2. Dunkerque. Intérieur du Port + 2pp
3. Dunkerque. Sortie du Port + 2pp
4. Gravelines. Entrée du Port + 2pp
5. Gravelines. Sortie du Port + 2pp
6. Calais. Vue Prise du Coté de Gravelines + 2pp
7. Calais. Vue Prise du L'Ouest + 2pp
8. Calais. Vue Prise de la Rade + 2pp
9. Calais. Intérieur du Port + 2pp
10. Calais. Place D'Armes + 2pp
11. Boulogne. Vue Prise de la Route de Paris + 2pp
12. Boulogne. Vue Prise de la Route de Calais + 4pp (last page blank)
13. Boulogne. Intérieur du Port +2pp
14. Boulogne. Entrée du Port + 2pp
15. Boulogne. Sortie du Port + 2pp
16. Boulogne. Vue des Bains + 2pp
17. Boulogne. La Colonne + 2pp
18. Boulogne. Fort la Crèche + 2pp
19. Ambleteuse. +2pp
20. Le Crotoy + 2pp
21. Le Crotoy **
22. Saint-Valery-Sur-Somme et La Ferté + 2pp
23. Saint Valery **
24. Dieppe. Vue Prise des Hauteurs du Chateau + 4pp (last page blank) **
25. Dieppe. Vue du Coté du Nord + 4pp (last page blank)
26. Dieppe. Vue des Bains + 2pp
27. Dieppe. Vue des Bains, Prise du Rivage + 2pp
28. Dieppe. Vue du Pont de Pollet
29. Arques. Vue du Chateau + 2pp
30. Arques. Vue du Chateau et de la Plaine + 2pp
31. Saint-Valery-En-Caux + 2pp
32. Fécamp. Vue Générale + 4pp
33. Fécamp. Vue Prise de L'Ouest + 2pp
34. Fécamp. Sortie du Port + 2pp
35. Étretat. Vue Générale + 2pp
36. Étretat **
37. Le Havre. Vue Générale Prise de la Cote + 4 pp (last page blank)
38. Le Havre. Vue des Bains + 2 pp
39. Le Havre. Entrée du Port vu de la Jetée + 2pp
40. Le Havre **
41. Le Havre. Avant-Port + 2 pp
42. Le Havre. Vieux Bassin + 2 pp
43. Le Havre. Bassin de la Barre + 2 pp
44. Le Havre. Bassin du Commerce + 2 pp
45. Le Havre
46. Le Havre
47. ?? **
48. Rouen **
49. Honfleur **
50. Enbouchure de la Seine

Abbey, Travel 92 (1823-25 edition); Bobins III 945 (1832 edition with 52? colored plates); SPL Hand Colored Rare Book Collection (#1283);.

Price: $25,000.00