JENYNS, R. Soame:Livre Rare Book
(POPULAR PRINTING - DEVOTIONAL).Biblio.com
Chemin de la Croix.
ref. 102515Nancy Imageries réunies de Jarville-Nancy n.d. early twentieth century Complete set of 14 stencil-coloured lithographies numbered I - XIV. Size c. 28 x 41 cm. Traces of staples at the top margin. A lovely clean set with bright colours. The illustrations are signed with the initials v.H. The fourteen plates show the stations of the cross. The illustrations are all set within an architectural border with the tetramorph in the corners the Four Evangelists in animal form with Matthew depicted as a man Mark as a lion Luke as a bull and John as an eagle. For over a century the eastern part of France was the centre of production for these prints and hundreds of people worked in the printing houses. The best known are prints from Epinal but thetr were also the printing houses of Metz Narcy-Jarville Point-à-Mousson Strasbourg and Wissembourg. These popular prints were produced as cheaply as possible in very large numbers and were destined for children and adults with modest means. The prints were coloured to make them more attractive but this also had to be done cheaply so stencil colouring was used. As we see in our copy very bright colours were used to make the prints stand out in the dark interiors of modest househoulds. Due to their nature they give a good view of the life of normal people at the time. They were very fragile and not many survived so they have now become quite scarce.
Knuf Rare Books · France€800.00
