1890 Scarce illustrated French Book ~ Images d'Epinal en dispositions diverses No1

 

Author : Many contributors
Title : Images d'Epinal en dispositions diverses - 20 feuilles : Papier-Fort No1.
Publisher : Paris, A. Capendu, Pellerin & Cie, Imp-Edit, no date (circa 1890's). First thus.
Language : Text in French
Size : Large 16" X 12" 
Pages : 21 Full illustrated sheets.
Binding : Very attractive and very good and nice illustrated hardcover binding (hinges fine, slightly worn and scuffed, some pencil mark at the rear cover - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover.
Content : Very good content (bright, tight, and clean, rae foxing and stating, some marginal creases to last sheet)
Illustrations : Complete with all the full page illustrations. Including images d'Epinal  404, 474, 410, 445, 403, 429, 434, 405, 413, 466, 472, 432, 441, 439, 435, 431, 449, 430, 448 et 438.

Estimate : (USD 200 - USD 400)

The book : Scarce and very nice color illustrated french Épinal prints. They were prints on popular subjects rendered in bright sharp colours, sold in France in the 19th century. They owe their name to the fact that the first publisher of such images — Jean-Charles Pellerin — having been born in Épinal, named the printing house he founded in 1796, Imagerie d'Épinal.
The expression image d'Épinal has become proverbial in French and refers to an emphatically traditionalist and naïve depiction of something, showing only its good aspects.
The prints were also a regular point of comparison for criticizing paintings by Courbet - notably his Burial at Ornans and Peasants of Flagey Returning from the Fair - and Manet. Acknowledging the proximity of some of Manet's works, like his Fifer, Zola turned the comparison into praise.