Commerce

1845 · rif. 75952 — Paris: D.Guilmard 1845. First edition Oblong quarto 10 x 7 inches. Title page plus the complete complement of 123 full page lithographs of French furniture. Although not stated in OCLC. this cops copy has 5 bis plates for no. 22 and one bis plate for no. 66. Publisher's blind ruled brown cloth gilt gilt cover lettering. marbled endpapers From hinge nicely repaired but still with a chip to the loer gutter margin of the marled endpapers. The text block is quite clean. A handsome copy of a wonderful trace catalog.There were 3 or 4 editions of this catalog and the only way of telling the difference is by the plate count which has by far the most number of plates. And this copy has even more as no cataloger have ever mentioned the bis plates. Only 5 of this edition located by OCLC all with no mention of any bis plates. "Little is known about the life of the Parisian publisher of Le Garde-meuble Désiré Guilmard c. 1810-c.1885 except that he founded the publishing firm of D. Guilmard in 1839. Because his name appears as the "delineator" of the majority of the furniture plates in Le Garde-meuble many historians presumed he was a furniture designer. However he is not known to have had a furniture shop nor are there any signed examples of his furniture extant. We do know that Guilmard was closely connected to the Parisian design community and through his numerous publications see below became an influential purveyor of taste. He was also an exceptionally able businessman who promoted French furniture and design during a fifty-year period of rapidly changing taste" Smithsonian. D.Guilmard hardcover