MIALHE, Pierre Toussaint Frédéric (1810-1881) - photo 1
MIALHE, Pierre Toussaint Frédéric (1810-1881) - photo 2
MIALHE, Pierre Toussaint Frédéric (1810-1881) - photo 3
MIALHE, Pierre Toussaint Frédéric (1810-1881) - photo 4

MIALHE, Pierre Toussaint Frédéric (1810-1881)

Lot 220
12.07.2023 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 25 200
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 993219
Lot 220 | MIALHE, Pierre Toussaint Frédéric (1810-1881)
Estimate value
£ 20 000 – 30 000
MIALHE, Pierre Toussaint Frédéric (1810-1881)

Isla de Cuba Pintoresca. Havana: Real Sociedad Patriótica, 1839-1842.

An exceptionally rare collection of lithographic views of 19th-century Cuba. Frédéric Mialhe was a French painter and draughtsman who lived and taught in Havana from 1838-1854 on the invitation of the Real Sociedad Patriótica to document the island. Working in collaboration with a firm of French lithographers, he produced 3 sets of lithographs, Isla de Cuba, Isla de Cuba Pintoresca and Viaje pintoresco por la Isla de Cuba, showing different views of the island. The plates were originally supposed to be published in instalments of 4 prints each, but this became intermittent after the ninth instalment, and the bibliographies do not agree on the exact number of plates published. According to Cueto, Mialhe's Colonial Cuba, as many as 49 prints may exist, but every copy seems to be unique, and some prints may have been issued separately; there was no title page, and in this issue the wrapper for the 4th part serves as such. 'Havana in the early nineteenth century was a city of extraordinary wealth and culture. Although a Spanish colony, the elite of Cuba looked entirely to France for the luxuries. One aspect of this Francophile sophistication was a talented community of lithographers made up almost entirely of emigrant Parisian workmen. Mialhe, perhaps the foremost of these, produced a series of viewbooks of the island in a variety of formats after he moved there in 1836' (America Pictured to the Life). We have been able to trace only one other copy at auction with a larger complement of plates (the William Reese copy with 38 plates, sold Christie's New York 26 May 2022, lot 182, $44,100), and only one other copy of the work is recorded by RBH since the 1960s. America Pictured to the Life 16; Bobins 1453; Palau 121980.



Oblong quarto (255mm x 345mm). 36 full-page lithographic plates (light spotting, toning and offsetting to plates 19-21, 31-33 and 35-36). Contemporary green cloth with gilt foliate borders and lettering to upper board, preserving upper printed yellow wrapper to 4th part as general title (minor bumping and fraying to spine tips and corners, edges lightly rubbed).





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Artist:Frederic Mialhe (1810 - 1881)
Place of origin:Cuba
Auction house category:Printed books
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
12.07.2023 – 12.07.2023
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
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Conditions of purchaseConditions of purchase

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