Les Rives de la Seine
Paris: Ch. Motte, 1831. Item #06709
A Deluxe India-Paper Copy with Hand-Colored Plates Heightened in Gum Arabic
Preserving All Three Original Pictorial Wrappers
DEROY, Isidore-Laurent. Les Rives de la Seine. Trente-six dessins lithographiés par M. Deroy. Publiés en trois livraisons par Ch. Motte, éditeur. Paris: Ch. Motte, 1831.
First edition. Oblong folio (10 7/8 x 14 inches; 277 x 350 mm.). Hand-colored lithographic vignette title-page, engraved map, and thirty-six hand-colored lithographic plates, each printed on India paper and mounted, all bearing the small oval embossed publisher's stamp in the lower blank margin, "Lith. à Paris / C. Motte / and London." The coloring throughout heightened with gum arabic. Complete with all three original hand-colored pictorial wrappers and the original plain end wrappers bound in. The first pictorial wrapper with an early nineteenth-century ink ownership signature.
Early-to-mid twentieth-century three-quarter red cloth over marbled boards, spine with green morocco label lettered in gilt, fore and lower edges uncut. Art Nouveau bookplate dated 1910 on front paste-down. A remarkably fresh and attractive copy.
One of the most beautiful lithographic tours of the Seine produced during the great flowering of French Romantic lithography. Issued in three separately published livraisons by Charles Motte, the work comprises thirty-six views drawn by Isidore-Laurent Deroy, among the most accomplished architectural and landscape lithographers of the Restoration period.
The plates follow the course of the Seine through Paris and the surrounding countryside, combining topographical precision with the picturesque sensibility that made French lithography one of the defining artistic achievements of the early nineteenth century.
The present copy appears to represent a deluxe issue of exceptional rarity. The plates are printed on India paper, mounted, embossed with Motte's oval publisher's stamp, fully hand-colored, and further heightened with gum arabic to produce an effect closely resembling contemporary watercolor drawings. Such copies are seldom encountered. The distinguished Bobins collection did not contain a colored example, the standard bibliographical references do not appear to specifically record a colored issue, and we have been unable to trace a comparable hand-colored copy at auction.
The survival of all three original pictorial wrappers is equally noteworthy. Because the work was issued in separate parts, the wrappers were ordinarily discarded when copies were bound. Their preservation here, together with the original plain end wrappers, provides an unusually complete record of the publication's original form. The early ownership signature on the first wrapper and the finely designed Art Nouveau bibliophile's bookplate dated 1910 further contribute to the volume's appealing provenance.
A superb copy of one of the finest Romantic lithographic books devoted to the Seine, preserved in a form that is almost certainly far rarer than the ordinary issue and among the most desirable examples likely to survive.
Price: $9,500.00