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Artist: Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞] a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代歌川豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 1865). Signed: Toyokuni ga [豊国 画] in a red toshidama cartouche. Publisher: Ibaya Senzaburō [伊場屋仙三郎] (Japanese, c. 1815 – 1869). Double nanushi censor seals: Hama & Magome, Kaei 2-5 (1849 – 1852). An uncut fan print (uchiwa-e, 220 x 292 mm) depicts a beautiful woman sitting on a balcony overlooking a bay and reading a book. Above the book, there is an obi with a pattern of stripes or modified key fret motif, with lettering that reads: 菅原島 [Sugawara-jima] and 美立 [mitate]. The lettering and the blossoming plum branch next to the obi provide an allusion to Sugawara no Michizane [菅原 道真/菅原 道眞] (Japanese, 845 – 903) - a prominent scholar and poet of Heian period exiled from Kyoto to the island of Kyushu as a result of another courtier's slander. A legend says that his beloved plum tree was so fond of its master that it flew to Kyushu with Sugawara. The Davis Museum at Wellesley College describes the print as belonging to the series A Parody of Sugawara Stripe Patterns (Mitate Sugawara-jima). To make the fact of an allusion transparent, Kunisada had changed the usual way of writing "Sugawara stripes" from 菅原縞 to 菅原島 and "mitate" from 見立 to 美立. An unusual spelling was also used to provide additional information to the reader in other cultures. E.g. during the Prohibition Era, the West Coast United States speakeasy bars and bordellos misspelt the items on a menu ("scollops") or in a neon sign ("Martuni's") to tell: here we have more pleasures for you than you may have expected. After Tenpō reforms, the printing of bijin-ga (美人画, "picture of beautiful woman") images was restricted. Our print disguises a typical bijin-ga as an advertisement of an obi (帯, a kimono sash) fabric pattern. "The market of portraits was satisfied and the authorities fooled" [Rebecca Salter. Japanese popular prints. — Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2006]. -
Title: COSTUMES ET MODES | D’AUTREFOIS | HORACE VERNET | Incroyables | et | Merveilleuses | Paris | 1810–1818 | TEXTE PAR | ROGER–ARMAND WEIGERT | Conservateur au Cabinet des Estampes | de la Bibliothèque Nationale | ÉDITIONS ROMBALDI | PARIS || Content: 24 photomechanical reproductions of the images from Bibliothèque nationale de France, printed on vélin paper from Papeteries Aussedat by Papeteries de la Moselle printing presses and stencil-coloured by Edmond Vairel. Text printed by Imprimerie Kapp on October 20, 1955. A print run of 4,000 copies, of which this is №122. Exterior: Pink lettered dust jacket over wrappers. Pagination: loose double leaves, [4 blanks] [4 h.t. and t.p.], i-xi [xii], 24 unnumbered plates, [4 blanks].Weigert, Roger-Armand (French, 1907-1986).
Émile Jean-Horace Vernet [Horace Vernet] (French, 1789 – 1863). Gatine, Georges Jacques (French, 1773 – after 1841). -
Pagination: [2] – letterpress title / blank, [2] – t.p. contents / to readers, [1] 2-368 [4 index], + 9 b/w and 27 coloured plates. Collation: 4to; letterpress title, [A]1 B-Z4 Aa-Zz4 3A-3B4 3C3. Binding: 25 x 16 cm; gilt-ruled half-calf over marbled boards, flat spine, gilt-ruled compartments, gilt lettering; front board almost detached. References: Martin Hardie (1906), p.310 [LIB-2623.2021]; R. V. Tooley (1935), p. 26 [LIB-2641.2021]; J. R. Abbey (1953), Cat. № 212, p. 166 [LIB-2622.2021]. -
Pagination: [2] – letterpress title / blank, t.p. contents / to readers, [1] 2-368 [4 index], + 6 b/w (one folding) and 28 coloured plates (total 34). Collation: 4to; letterpress title, [A]1 B-Z4 Aa-Zz4 3A-3B4 3C3. Binding: 25 x 16 cm; gilt-ruled half-calf over marbled boards, flat spine, gilt-ruled compartments, gilt lettering. 5 aquatints by Thomas Rowlandson (British, 1757 – 1827): Table D'Hote; Consulting the Prophet; The Prophet discovering himself and exposing the deception; The Arrival in Paris; Liberality to infirm beggars on leaving Yrvi. References: Martin Hardie (1906), p.310 [LIB-2623.2021]; R. V. Tooley (1935), p. 26 [LIB-2641.2021]; J. R. Abbey (1953), Cat. № 212, p. 167 [LIB-2622.2021]. -
Pagination: [2] – letterpress title / blank, t.p. with contents / to readers, [1] 2-376 + 7 b/w and 16 coloured plates (total 23); this differs to Abbey’s description of 372 pages + 4 pages index, and 41 plates (lacking 18 plates). In No 73 lacking 3 plates: Quadrant Regent st., Morning dress and Full dress. In No 74 lacking 5 plates: Charles str., Brienz, head dresses, full dress, and muslin patterns. In No 75 lacking 5 plates: 4 with bank notes and Castle of Rinkenberg. In No 76 lacking 1 plate: Cavern St. Beat. In No 77 lacking 2 plates: Wetzar and Lake Thun. In No 78 lacking 2 plates: Crescent at Portland Place and Environs of Thun. Collation: 4to; letterpress title, [A]1 B-Z4 Aa-Zz4 3A-3C4 3D2. Binding: 23.5 x 15.5 cm; double fillet blind-ruled half-calf over pebbled cloth boards, raised bands ruled blind, crimson label with gilt lettering to spine. References: Martin Hardie (1906), p.310 [LIB-2623.2021]; R. V. Tooley (1935), p. 26 [LIB-2641.2021]; J. R. Abbey (1953), Cat. № 212, p. 174 [LIB-2622.2021]. -
Title: LA | BELLE ASSEMBLÉE | OR, | BELL'S | COURT AND FASHIONABLE | MAGAZINE, | ADDRESSED PARTICULARLY TO | THE LADIES. | VOL. XI.—NEW SERIES. | FROM JANUARY 1, TO JUNE 30, 1815. | LONDON: | Printed for J. BELL, GALLERY OF FINE ARTS, | Clare-Court, Drury-Lane. | 1815. || Pagination: [2] – 11th volume wood-engraved pictorial title page, [1, 2] – January faux-title and table of content, [3] 4-284 [2] – index to 11th vol. Notes: February f.t. not paginated, but within the collation; the last page of the index at the very end paginated [iii]/iv, so pages i/ii missing (the gathering Nn lacking one sheet) Collation: 4to; π1 A-Mm4 Nn3, 28 plates extraneous to collation (lacking 2 plates). Binding: Half brown morocco over marbled boards, flat spine, compartments gilt-ruled with double-fillet and gilt-lettered. Contents: Jan: pp. 1-48, 5 plates. Feb: pp. 51-96, 5 plates. Mar: pp. 97-144, 5 plates. Apr: pp. 145-192, 5 plates. May: pp. 193-240, 5 plates. Jun: pp. 241-284, 3 plates (lacking 2 colour prints). Fashion plates, two per issue, are hand-coloured copperplate engravings, unsigned. Stipple engraved portraits, one per issue as frontispiece: (1) Actress Catherine Stephens, Countess of Essex (British, 1794 – 1882) by James Hopwood the Elder [James Hopwood Senior] (British, c. 1740s/50s – 1819) after Sir George Hayter (British, 1792 – 1871); (2) Madame de Talleyrand, Princesse De Bénévent (Danish-French, 1761– 1834), unsigned, but can be attributed to François Gérard (French, 1770 – 1837); (3) Actress Miss Sarah Booth (1793 – 30 December 1867), unsigned; (4) Group portrait of the French Royal family (Louis XVI, Louis XVII, Marie Antoinette, Madam Elizabeth, Louis Antoine de Bourbon, Duke d'Enghien, and Marie Thérèse Louise of Savoy, Princesse de Lamballe), unsigned, (5) Actress, Miss Sarah Blanche Matthews (b.1794) by Thomas Burke (Irish, 1749 – 1815) after George Hayter. The sixth print, in the March issue, is a lithographic portrait of Napoléon Bonaparte (French, 1769 – 1821), unsigned. -
Pictorial album of 20 hand-coloured wood engravings by Firmin Gillot after Alfred Grévin; numbered 1 to 20, bound with tissue guards in half-brown cloth over marbled boards, publisher's gilt-lettered blue wrappers preserved, purple-blueish endpapers. Front wrapper (gilt on blue): LES FILLES D'EVE | ALBUM | DE TRAVESTISSEMENTS | PLUS OU MOINS | HISTORIQUES | Par A. GRÉVIN | — | PARIS | AUX BUREAUX : DU JOURNAL AMUSANT, DES MODES PARISIENNES | DE LA TOILETTE DE PARIS ET DU PETIT JOURNAL POUR RIRE | 20. Rue Bergère. || ; Henri Plon's imprint to back wrapper. Contributors: Grevin, Alfred (French, 1827 – 1892) Gillot, Firmin (French, 1820 – 1872) Plon, Henri (French, 1806 – 1872) Ref.: Metropoliten Museum.
