Papercutting (1 results)

A bravura performance of recreational papercutting of elaborate wood engraved prints, many of large size. The name on the first leaf 'Mr Montagne' is constructed of historiated letters from various sources, which sets the tone for this rather astonishing and various collection of cut prints, apparently chosen for their delicacy and intricacy and the challenge they presented to the papercutter. After cutting, many have only minute filaments holding them together like a net. This is not an antiquarian collection, and most of the subjects seem to have come from French popular newspapers and journals of the day, others from pattern books - the best contemporary repositories of the wood engraver's art.Papercutting has developed in different branches all over the world, and in Europe (especially England and France) it bears an interesting relation to print culture. It demonstrates alternative ways of consuming products of the explosion of the production visual prints in the mid nineteenth-century, involving personal selection, manual interaction, curation and preservation.There are images here of contemporary notables: including a statue of the army surgeon, Dominique Jean Larre, erected in 1850 at Val-de-Grâce; Thomas Robert Bugeaut (d. 1849); Louis-Eugène Cavaignac; Emperor Louis-Napolèon III, first president of France (1848-1852); Queen Victoria; George Washington; Alexander II. Other subjects include flora and fauna, sometimes exotic, with some American falcons and exotic plants; coaches and carriages (with some more recherché conveyances, such as De Schevleing's sailing chariot); there are soldiers, and also a few caricatures. But perhaps the most impressive and decorative cuts are the prints of medieval applied art and architecture - with copious gothic detail - and the large cartouches and decorative panels, with their floral swags, leafy branches and tendrils, all offering a robust challenge even to the expert papercutter's hand. Oblong folio (295 × 450 mm), 72 leaves, all but one of stiff blue paper, each with elaborate papercut prints, mainly to one side but occasionally to versos too. Some prints on coloured paper, others with coloured elements. Original album binding with amateur late 19th century floral fabric covers, brocade borders and decoration, secured with long stitching over the front pastedowns.