first edition
by LAMI, Eugène
Paris: Chez Gihaut frères, 1828. Twenty Charming Hand-Colored Lithographs of French Upper Class Country Life
The Copy of Ferdinand De Lesseps -
LAMI, Eugène. [Les Agréments de la Vie de château] [First and Second Series]. Paris: Paris H. Gache. [n.d., 1828-1833].
Two parts in one oblong folio volume (9 3/4 x 12 1/2 inches; 248 x 317 mm.). Twenty numbered hand-colored lithographed plates. All plates mounted on guards. Bound without the printed title-page.
Bound ca. 1890 in three quarter orange cloth over marbled boards, smooth spine with dark green morocco label lettered in gilt. With the armorial bookplate of Ferdinand De Lesseps on front paste-down. Also a second (unidentified) bookplate on front paste-down. Binding extremities a little rubbed, still an excellent example of these two rare suites, scarce complete.
Ferdinand De Lesseps (1805-1894) was a French Orientalist diplomat and administrator who was responsible for the construction of the Suez Canal.
“This elegant and brilliant painter devoted much of his time to lithography between 1817 and 1833. The son of an Empire bureaucrat, [Lami] grew up in Paris. Beginning in 1815, he studied painting with Horace Vernet and afterwards in the studio of Baron Gros…To support himself he made lithographs for several albums, including in 1822 a Collection des uniformes des armées françaises, de 1791 à 1814…Lami paid his first visit to England in 1826, during which he drew the sketches which resulted in his Souvenirs de Londres…under [Henry Monnier’s] guidance [he] comprehensively explored London and the countryside. Indeed, Monnier provided more than a third of the twenty-eight designs which make up Lami’s finest album, the Voyage en Angleterre. It is here that for the first time Lami struck his distinctive note in lithography. These precise and sparkling plates, which show England in its most attractive aspects, brought the lithographic recording of the passing scene to an unprecedented level of grace and refinement. Lami’s Tribulations de gens à équipages of 1827 and Six quartiers de Paris…treat French subjects in the same manner…After Lami gained recognition as a painter, he became a frequenter of the fashionable world, which he rendered with sympathy and brio. His chief albums of this kind are the charming Vie de château, published in two series in 1828 and 1833, and the Quadrille de Marie Stuart” (Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book, p.
203).
First Series Plates:
No. 1. “La Traverse”
No. 2. “L’arrivée des Lettres et des Journaux”
No. 3. “La Matinée”
No. 4. “Une visite au Village”
No. 5. “Les Voisins de Campagne”
No. 6. “Les Amateurs de Paysage”
No. 7. “Une visite dans le voisinage”
No. 8. “La Chasse au Sanglier (l’attaque)”
No. 9. “Les Contes de Revenants”
No. 10. “Les Amusements nocturnes”
Second Series Plates:
No. 1. “L’arrivée. J’arrive bien crotté, bien mouillé, heureux de trouver la redingotte de mon hôte”
No. 2. “La promenade après diner”
No. 3. “La nôce de la fille du fermier”
No. 4. “Les anglais du voisinage”
No. 5. “Le Roman Nouveau”
No. 6. “La Course en Sac”
No. 7. “La manie de la Truelle”
No. 8. “Le fils du fermier”
No. 9. “Causeries du soir”
No. 10. “Le départ pour la promenade”
The plates all have the imprint “Paris H. Gache. 66 rue de la Victoire” and "Imp. Lemercier, Paris."
Lemoisne, Lami, p. 383; Rahir, La Bibliothèque de l’amateur, p. 362; Bobins II, 534; Not in Colas or Lipperheide. (Inventory #: 06219)
The Copy of Ferdinand De Lesseps -
LAMI, Eugène. [Les Agréments de la Vie de château] [First and Second Series]. Paris: Paris H. Gache. [n.d., 1828-1833].
Two parts in one oblong folio volume (9 3/4 x 12 1/2 inches; 248 x 317 mm.). Twenty numbered hand-colored lithographed plates. All plates mounted on guards. Bound without the printed title-page.
Bound ca. 1890 in three quarter orange cloth over marbled boards, smooth spine with dark green morocco label lettered in gilt. With the armorial bookplate of Ferdinand De Lesseps on front paste-down. Also a second (unidentified) bookplate on front paste-down. Binding extremities a little rubbed, still an excellent example of these two rare suites, scarce complete.
Ferdinand De Lesseps (1805-1894) was a French Orientalist diplomat and administrator who was responsible for the construction of the Suez Canal.
“This elegant and brilliant painter devoted much of his time to lithography between 1817 and 1833. The son of an Empire bureaucrat, [Lami] grew up in Paris. Beginning in 1815, he studied painting with Horace Vernet and afterwards in the studio of Baron Gros…To support himself he made lithographs for several albums, including in 1822 a Collection des uniformes des armées françaises, de 1791 à 1814…Lami paid his first visit to England in 1826, during which he drew the sketches which resulted in his Souvenirs de Londres…under [Henry Monnier’s] guidance [he] comprehensively explored London and the countryside. Indeed, Monnier provided more than a third of the twenty-eight designs which make up Lami’s finest album, the Voyage en Angleterre. It is here that for the first time Lami struck his distinctive note in lithography. These precise and sparkling plates, which show England in its most attractive aspects, brought the lithographic recording of the passing scene to an unprecedented level of grace and refinement. Lami’s Tribulations de gens à équipages of 1827 and Six quartiers de Paris…treat French subjects in the same manner…After Lami gained recognition as a painter, he became a frequenter of the fashionable world, which he rendered with sympathy and brio. His chief albums of this kind are the charming Vie de château, published in two series in 1828 and 1833, and the Quadrille de Marie Stuart” (Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book, p.
203).
First Series Plates:
No. 1. “La Traverse”
No. 2. “L’arrivée des Lettres et des Journaux”
No. 3. “La Matinée”
No. 4. “Une visite au Village”
No. 5. “Les Voisins de Campagne”
No. 6. “Les Amateurs de Paysage”
No. 7. “Une visite dans le voisinage”
No. 8. “La Chasse au Sanglier (l’attaque)”
No. 9. “Les Contes de Revenants”
No. 10. “Les Amusements nocturnes”
Second Series Plates:
No. 1. “L’arrivée. J’arrive bien crotté, bien mouillé, heureux de trouver la redingotte de mon hôte”
No. 2. “La promenade après diner”
No. 3. “La nôce de la fille du fermier”
No. 4. “Les anglais du voisinage”
No. 5. “Le Roman Nouveau”
No. 6. “La Course en Sac”
No. 7. “La manie de la Truelle”
No. 8. “Le fils du fermier”
No. 9. “Causeries du soir”
No. 10. “Le départ pour la promenade”
The plates all have the imprint “Paris H. Gache. 66 rue de la Victoire” and "Imp. Lemercier, Paris."
Lemoisne, Lami, p. 383; Rahir, La Bibliothèque de l’amateur, p. 362; Bobins II, 534; Not in Colas or Lipperheide. (Inventory #: 06219)
(818) 222-4103
