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Les
Papillons Metamorphoses Terrestres Des Peuples De L’Air
By Amédée Varin
Tex, by Eugene Nus and Antony Meray
1852
2 Volume Leather Bound Set
4 Raised bands on the spine with
gold lettering
Books measure 10 ½” by 7 ¼”
35 hand colored plates in two volumes
Paris Gabriel de Gonet. Authors:NUS, Eugene and MERAY, Antony n.d (1852). 4to. Two volumes. pp. (iv), 235; 261. With 35 colored wood engravings by Varin. Scarce edition with 2 frontispieces, 1 portrait of Cazotte for a total of 35 exquisite plates by Amédée Varin in the style of Grandville, all hand-colored. Some very minor staining and foxing rarely affecting plates (please see scans). The covers are in excellent condition and tightly bound. A FINE COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION of this marvelous anthropomorphic work. The text by Nus and Meray includes a chapter entitled La vestale du Rio Colorado and illustrates a butterfly in the guise of a North American Indian.
The plates found in Papillons
- Metamorphoses Terrestres Des Peuples De L'Air are a series of thirty-five delightful
hand-colored Victorian
engravings illustrating personification of lovely butterflies
in the style of Grandville.
Each early 19th-century charming human figure is richly costumed in the wings of
a given species placed in an appropriate 'natural' setting, often surrounded by
anthropomorphized insects. These prints are by Amédée Varin (1818-1883)
who was a Draughtsman and painter, and member of the French School. He belonged
to a true dynasty of artists, and took part in the preparation of the engraving
of Les Fleurs Animees the animated Flowers of Grandville. This work
precedes Grandville’s and is not found as often.
This book, Les Papillons, is done in the style of J.J. Grandville. It resembles Grandville so much the bookbinder put JJ Grandville on the spine instead of Amédée Varin. The book is very much like Les Fleurs Animees in that the butterflies and insects take on human qualities. Like Les Fleurs Animees, there is a song in the book and the final chapter is on each class of insects.
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