Univers Romantique:
The French in their own image
This absolutely unique, world-class collection of illustrated French books of the Romantic period, is offered for sale en bloc, and has been extensively documented in Catalogue No. 83 (in four large quarto volumes, 2000 pages, 4000 colour illustrations), available in the online shop. It includes all important French illustrated books between, roughly, 1825 and 1875, with 1668 original drawings and watercolors by the period’s most important and influential illustrative artists, including J.J. Grandville, Gustave Doré, Paul Gavarni, Honoré Daumier, Jean Gigoux, Tony Johannot, Nicolas Toussaint Charlet, Auguste Raffet, Édouard Wattier, and many more. The collection features 600 lots, including an unprecedented 111 copies on China paper, 85 illuminated or hand-coloured specimens, several unique copies on vellum, hundreds of signed bindings by the masters of the craft between 1830-1930 (70 of which are publisher’s bindings in morocco or chagrin), as well as a sheer abundance of other marvels, such as the painted printing blocks of Johannot and Doré.