Les Talents ou Les Couronnes de la Jeunesse
Paris: Chez Lefeul, Librairie, [1827]. Eight 12mo volumes, measuring 6 x 4 inches: 40. Original glazed white pictorial boards, engraved and hand-colored. Hand-colored frontispieces, tissue-guarded. Set housed in original bisected box, hand-colored pictorial title with “Alph. Giroux et Cie” imprint mounted to lid, ornate gilt foil floral border to edges, remnants of original silk ties. Scattered foxing to text, lightest shelfwear to box.
Complete set of eight hand-colored booklets celebrating the talents, or “crowns of youth,” to be cultivated by girls: “La Lecture,” “L’Ecriture,” “Le Chant,” “La Danse,” “Le Dessin,” “La Broderie,” “L’Économie Domestique,” and “Les Exercises Gymnastiques.” Each volume tells the story of a girl who improves her skills, to the gratification of everyone in her life. Prolific children’s author Jean-Pierre Brès (1782-1832) was fascinated by the intersection of play and education: he devised a popular “tableau polyoptique,” sometimes considered the first myriorama, and is credited with producing the first movable book. These appealing miniature volumes, brightly decorated with engravings of shuttlecocks, paintbrushes, violins, and laurel wreaths, are designed to delight young readers, as well as to instruct: as Eucalie, the heroine of “La Lecture,” exclaims: “O la jolie bibliothèque!” Gumuchian 921, “Le Chant” only. OCLC locates holdings, most of partial sets and individual volumes, at BNF, Royal Library Netherlands, National Library Spain, V&A, UCLA, Harvard and Indiana. An exceptional set, with brilliant color.
Price: $4,000.00