Parisian furrier’s promotional album in the form of an indigenous manuscript
Paris: Maison de Fourrures à la Reine d’Angleterre, 1921. Single volume, measuring 9.5 x 11 inches: 32. Original pictorial vellum wrappers printed in black, orange, and yellow, whipstitched with a leather strap; translucent textured inner wrappers. Text block lithographed on heavy die-cut stock, most pages with illustrated borders printed in black, orange, yellow, and blue. Color illustrations throughout text, including eight fashion plates and two pages of Arctic hunting scenes; one page of musical notation. Light soiling and natural mottling to vellum; lacking “whalebone” amulet at end of leather strap.
Lavish promotional album produced for the clients of Parisian furrier Jacques Neubauer, who operated as Maison de Fourrures à la Reine d’Angleterre: an ambitious fusion of ethnographic fantasy, Art Deco aesthetics, and luxury goods. Bound in limp vellum decorated with Laplandic and Samoyedic designs, the lithographed album presents itself in the form of an indigenous manuscript, inspired by “l’art préhistorique” and “l’art actuel des peuples primatifs, principalement des peuples du nord: Eskimo et Samoyède.” Contributors include explorer and scientist Jean-Baptiste Charcot, who recounts highlights of his polar voyages; writer Camille d’Hoedt, whose essay on Persian lamb is incongruously framed by images of the Inuit hunt; painter Édouard Paul Mérite, whose essay about trappers is accompanied by watercolors of bloodied seals and polar bears; and illustrator Victor Lhuer, who contributes fashion plates of the ethnic Siberian costumes that inspired the current season’s furs. Lhuer also provided the cover design and the illustrated borders, drawing on museum collections cited in the index for scenes of the hunt and its tools. The album includes a musical score for an Inuit hunting song (“air Eskimo”) extracted from the “Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology” as well. We locate eight institutional holdings: Harvard, Newberry, UC Irvine, UCLA, Illinois, Penn State, Toronto, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A remarkable production, at the intersection of art, anthropology, and commerce.
Price: $1,250.00