GRANDVILLE, J.J. (pseud. of Jean Ignace Isidore GÉRARD 1803-1847) - photo 1
GRANDVILLE, J.J. (pseud. of Jean Ignace Isidore GÉRARD 1803-1847) - photo 2
GRANDVILLE, J.J. (pseud. of Jean Ignace Isidore GÉRARD 1803-1847) - photo 3

GRANDVILLE, J.J. (pseud. of Jean Ignace Isidore GÉRARD 1803-1847)

Lot 121
09.07.2025 10:30UTC +01:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1450326
Lot 121 | GRANDVILLE, J.J. (pseud. of Jean Ignace Isidore GÉRARD 1803-1847)
Estimate value
£ 6 000 – 8 000
GRANDVILLE, J.J. (pseud. of Jean Ignace Isidore GÉRARD 1803-1847)
Scenes de la vie privee et publique des animaux vignettes par Grandville. Etudes de moeurs contemporaines publiees sous la direction de M. P.-J. Stahl, avec la collaboration de messieurs de Balzac-L. Baude. Paris: Hetzel et Paulin, 1842.
Superlative extra-illustrated set of this landmark publication in 19th-century illustrated satire and caricature. The work combines texts by major French literary figures such as Honoré de Balzac, George Sand, and publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel (writing as P.J. Stahl) with Grandville’s distinctive anthropomorphic illustrations, and is celebrated for its innovation in using animals in human roles to satirize contemporary society. Landlords are represented as vultures, bankers as turkeys, and politicians as hippopotamuses, blending human traits with animal forms to create biting social commentary. With its imaginative and often fantastical visual approach, Grandville’s work is also regarded as an important precursor to surrealism. Published in the aftermath of the French Revolution, the book reflects the tensions and changes in French society. The title is a play on Balzac’s Comédie humaine, mimicking his division of society into various ‘scenes’ (private life, provincial life, etc.), but here applied to the animal kingdom as a satirical device. The work opens with a fictional revolution among zoo animals, who decide to publish their own stories to counter human misrepresentations, establishing an immediate parallel with contemporary political upheavals.

With this set are the original wrappers for the bound volumes and the individual parts, as well as the coloured suite of illustrations. The suite of full-page illustrations printed on chine are all present in their first states. It would appear that the coloured plates were not issued by Hetzel until 1844, the year in which the complete work was re-issued in a new edition. Carteret III: 552-559; Ray French 194; Eur. Einbdk. 183 [item I]; 5 Jh. Buchill. 173 [item II].

3 works bound in 6 volumes, comprising: [I]: 2 volumes, quarto (261 x 175mm). Half-titles, approx. 114 wood-engraved pictorial initials and vignettes in the text and 201 plates after Grandville (occasional light spotting). Original dark purple morocco, covers and spine decorated with gilt-stamped characters from the book, yellow endpapers, gilt edges (foot of spine to vol. 2 neatly repaired, extremities lightly rubbed); [II]: 3 volumes, quarto (275 x 190mm). Half-titles, first 2 vols with approx. 114 wood-engraved pictorial initials and vignettes in the text and 201 plates after Grandville, the third volume comprising a suite of the coloured plates with the corresponding yellow wrappers for the individual 100 parts, most numbered accordingly, and 11 signed watercolour drawings in the manner of Grandville; the pictorial prospectus and two variant pairs of the original yellow wrappers for the individual issues bound in at the end of vol. 2, one pair being for the first five parts reissued with a different vignette (some of the wrappers for the parts spotted or creased and with a few small repairs). Later green half morocco over marbled-paper covered boards by Caravon, spines tooled in blind and gilt with volutes and scrolls within rectangular panels tooled with single gilt fillets, marbled endpapers, uncut, preserving original wrappers (extremities lightly rubbed); [III]: large quarto (312 x 243 mm). 201 wood-engravings after Grandville with captions printed on chine and individually mounted, together with a further signed watercolour in the manner of Grandville (wood-engraving ‘Je suis contente de vous, aussi vous allez avoir des tartines’ torn with slight loss). Later brown straight-grained half morocco gilt signed A. & R. Maylander over marbled-paper covered boards, top edge gilt (extremities faintly rubbed). All volumes contained in matching green cloth slipcases. Provenance: [II only] van der Rest (bookplate) – Charles Tur (bookplate) – H.P. Kraus (no sign of provenance, but sold to:) – Otto Schäfer (1912-2000; print and book collector, Schweinfurt; sold at:) – Sotheby’s, The Collection of Otto Schäfer Part II: Parisian Books, 27 June 1995, lot 91.
Place of origin:Western Europe, France, Europe
Auction house category:Books and manuscripts, Printed books
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
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United Kingdom
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