Sale 2496 - Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books, December 13, 2018
275 c (CARICATURE.) Daumier, Honoré; and Philipon, Charles. Caricaturana (Les Cent Robert-Macaire). 100 numbered and captioned lithographs fully colored by a contemporary hand and heightened with gum arabic. 4to, 13x10 1 / 2 inches, 19th-century quarter calf over marbled paper covered boards, spine gilt, moderate wear; plates bound on guards and showing stab marks from prior stitching, light edge soiling and occasional foxing, few plates with modest marginal repairs, colors bright and generally quite clean; ex-libris bookplates of Julius Model and Mary S. Collins. First series, mixed states. Paris: Aubert, [1836-1838] [4,000/6,000] daumier ’ s “ best - known series ” (Ray). This collaboration with Philipon takes aim at French society behind the vehicle of invented voguish scoundrel Robert Macaire. “They show him and his inseparable companion, the dejected and meager Bertrand, ranging through all kinds of commercial enterprise, in the stock market, in the banks, in the courts, and in dozens of other public settings, never failing to find eager dupes... Macaire is even to be found flattering its creator, “Monsieur Daumier, your series of Robert- Macaire is a charming thing, it is the exact portrayal of the rascalities of our time! Though Daumier’s designs are superb in themselves, particularly in the variety of supple and telling poses that he conceives for Macaire and Bertrand, they would be incomplete without the unfailing wit and point of Philipon’s captions”. Gordon Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book, 161.
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