Several months ago I discovered a tatty-looking French book, lying at the bottom of a box. The cover was damaged and the binding was in a terrible state, but I knew that I had found something special:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNbRQWl-sb4xG9PqXrKrgBsqt1BJ_BOfv8sePi3qOC-07BWRHgnawgwaIktFFQl1-jEsy7sTY-tgqqbSMzdVEC2XKxjcYJXE_TE3TtGU5cUGdyXpIQZaTMkdsCQhq8dFxEIM8adg/s400/chinoiseries+6.jpg)
It's not just the illustrations that make this book so remarkable, but also the fact that it was published in 1890. I had no idea that colour printing was so advanced in those days.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiznH0t-d0Jtk3v5fL57IWKGGgeNNNGTQTSqxD4URrl_tTVDirxAwLDOdTc4DvcifG86-Tkt2v7S-Y7envaWGFe6o-a3vIDw9VdUw65IH9HcOXcmIedhDdw718_xsI6hMYHP5Opew/s400/chinoiseries+5.jpg)
If you click on these images, they may take slightly longer to upload, but I felt that illustrations of this quality warranted high resolution scans (and as these images are copyright-free, I hope they'll make their way around the blogosphere).
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqcxKnOXhE9zIVrilW5P1vEFSoxLZanvIcSUrbbAtwgF_koi_EiG8U5HVfU7AF5g7w8tLcKAAtJ8uGe1_0pyBVxzz9fFY2IoxrhCXTzllyggdtNGP4pYMNaaHcJtjYwtEHfS9qhw/s400/chinoiseries+4.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEBR5kk01fOw46U_mGYEAgIMrL_yVjsl36ZiEpLyZPVi_HagdedAmAKqWbaEx0kWWR1wq0Hni-EVFdWDq1ih8yau_RgEOPKTImsyflOjagRLqAcsIBtvS_p7d4QS7sUVdJc6UpXw/s400/chinoiseries+3.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV6VIPXsBjKb5fnGqPWlCS-OevMHGFy2mZQRUoKAErX59JgUIk586XZkUlLpqbVLcDJSa06IPSlL9e9tBpTpHPC6vs8BC0jO7kBOA2n7YpdfdrCoc59Nk86q56KnQHGjVs4dIEbw/s400/chinoiseries+2.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHvLjM8il02PogwR25fCg5sdrhJ3RBEqw_XHAHateOxvTut85wmYzJjaxUozpHo0YwuFyS9qBQ6fs4AVrWDRmQd7ds_A_Iy8IQGiRAD9pAnbR5ZydA68u_zWWKuaMnreyTfjHqvg/s400/chinoiseries+1.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhICn6gYMRzPdZmRJKGQkp9g5b_gXBG75cfg6d62Wb1DbUqIc5anu2T1lpVqmKTUaSc60FMn2hL-artMicTqgP3z5Qs0i7ew2e3CT31I-LS13fopTRUqWIgZOSM_vzOB0SQfg17TA/s400/chinoiseries+7.jpg)
Both the book and its author remain something of a mystery, which I find hard to understand. How can a stunning title like this languish in obscurity? I'm sure the book has some value, but selling it is proving to be an uphill strugle.
7 comments:
Lovely! Thanks, Steerforth. I am guessing that these are lithographs, passed again through a press where there are bodies of type.
The title page is interesting, an attempt at a Chinese brushwork effect that looks crude to modern eyes.
A very nice find.
I'd buy it (let's haggle). What's the outlet for your heterogeneous discoveries?
It's here:
http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m38.l1313&_nkw=chinoiseries&_sacat=See-All-Categories
Crude? It just looks very 1890s French to me. Absolutely lovely. The excitement of being a bookseller.
Particularly a secondhand bookseller (or should that be a seller of secondhand books?). I was in mainstream bookselling for 18 years and by the end, it was far more formulaic and unadventurous.
Just curious - how much did it go for n the end? I should have 'watched' it but forgot...
£32 measly pounds, including postage. The buyer still hasn't paid yet though.
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