Collection des Uniformes de L'Armee Francais
Paris: Charles Piquet, 1817. Item #06737
The Unfinished Masterpiece of the French Restoration Army
One of the Earliest Military Lithographs Printed by Godefroy Engelmann
The Complete Published Series
MALLET, Le Chef d'Escadron. ENGELMANN, Godefroy, lithographer. Collection des Uniformes de l'Armée Française comprenant chaque régiment de toute arme, avec des détails de l'habillement et de la coiffure, des marques distinctives, de l'armement, de l'équipement et du harnachement. Ouvrage exécuté par ordre de S. E. le Ministre de la Guerre; dessiné et lithographié au Dépôt Général de la Guerre; les figures par M. Mallet, le paysage par M. Lameau. Paris: Charles Piquet, [ca. 1817-1818].
First and only edition.
Elephant folio (24 x 18 1/8 inches; 610 x 460 mm.). Complete with the twelve magnificent contemporary hand-colored lithographed plates, all mounted on guards as issued. Plates numbered I-VI and 1, 8-12, reflecting the original numbering sequence. Plate II trimmed short at the fore-margin, not affecting the image. Plate IX with a neatly repaired tear measuring approximately 2 7/8 x 3 3/8 inches in the lower right corner, likewise not affecting the image. Plates VII-XII with some foxing, chiefly confined to the blank margins. An excellent, bright set with the hand-coloring fresh and attractive.
Late nineteenth-century quarter black hard-grain morocco over marbled boards. Smooth spine lettered in gilt. Lower corners of the boards with approximately one inch chipped away.
This exceptionally rare suite belongs to the earliest flowering of artistic lithography in France and represents one of the most ambitious military publishing projects conceived during the Bourbon Restoration. Prepared under the authority of the French Ministry of War, the work was intended to illustrate every regiment of the restored French Army, providing authoritative representations of each corps together with detailed information concerning uniforms, headgear, insignia, weapons, equipment, and horse furniture.
The project, however, was never completed. As both Colas and Bobins observe, although the title announces a comprehensive survey of the entire French Army, only the twelve plates depicting the uniforms of the Maison du Roi, or Royal Guard, were ever published. The work therefore survives today not as an incomplete copy but as the complete record of an unfinished official undertaking. Such abandoned publications often possess a particular historical interest, preserving the ambitions of projects that changing political or financial circumstances prevented from reaching completion.
The plates were drawn by Chef d'Escadron Mallet, whose careful military draughtsmanship combines remarkable precision with considerable artistic elegance. The landscapes were supplied by Lameau, while the lithography was executed by Godefroy Engelmann, one of the greatest pioneers in the history of the medium. Engelmann established his celebrated Paris press after introducing the latest German lithographic techniques into France and rapidly became the country's foremost printer of artistic lithographs. His workshop produced works after Horace Vernet, Charlet, Isabey, and many of the leading artists of the Restoration, while his later invention of chromolithography earned him international recognition and a gold medal from the Société d'Encouragement. These plates belong to the formative years of his career, when French lithography was first demonstrating its superiority over traditional engraving for the accurate depiction of military costume.
Each plate depicts members of the Royal Guard in full dress with extraordinary attention to the minutiae of military equipment. The brilliant contemporary hand-coloring heightens the richness of the uniforms while preserving the documentary precision demanded by an official publication. The monumental elephant-folio format allows every detail of embroidery, braid, buttons, weapons, saddlery, and accoutrements to be rendered with exceptional clarity.
Issued by the distinguished military publisher Charles Piquet, the work forms part of the remarkable series of official costume publications documenting the French Army immediately following the fall of Napoleon. Together with the military albums of Aubry, Bellangé, and later Raffet, it records the visual transformation of the French armed forces during the Restoration and occupies an important place in the history of nineteenth-century military illustration.
The work is of exceptional rarity. Colas records numerous variants, reflecting the complicated publication history of the series, while noting that only these twelve plates ever appeared despite the much broader scope promised by the title.
Of extraordinary rarity. Neither OCLC/WorldCat nor RLIN records a copy, and we have located no examples in the antiquarian book trade. The work is absent from Lipperheide and appears to survive in only a handful of examples, making it one of the rarest official French military costume publications of the Bourbon Restoration.
A splendid and imposing monument of early French lithography, documenting the uniforms of the Royal Guard during one of the most fascinating transitional moments in French military history.
References: Bobins II, 368 (this copy); Colas 1954; Hiler, p. 564; not in Lipperheide.
Price: $8,500.00