Mémoire sur quelques améliorations apportées à l’art de la lithographie par M.M. Chevallier, Pharmacien chimiste & Langlumé, lithographe.
[Plates of proofs dated 21 May 1828, letter from a lithographer dated 26 June 1828].
In-folio (353 x 265 mm), entirely lithographed, 9 pp. and 12 plates of proofs, bradel cartonnage, spine muted; without plates no. 4, 7 and 8, proofs bound out of order, some foxing, a tear in the margin of one proof (Period binding).
"a key missing piece not only to our collection but to public research holdings for the world." write the Firestone Library about their acquisition of the second edition of this Mémoire.
About the first edition that we present : "Mentioned in histories but no copy known to exist."
The very first publication of the discoveries of Alphonse Chevallier (1793-1879) and Pierre Langlumé (1790-1830) on the retouching and erasing of lithographic stones.
This copy contains 12 proofs of lithographic tests presenting these new processes.
This memoir, one of the cornerstones of the history of lithography, is known today only through mention, and no copies are listed in public institutions.
It may be the only copy to have survived to the present day.
The text of this memoir was composed just after the authors deposited their discoveries with the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris (14 April 1828).
After some preliminary observations, the memoir develops the processes of "acidulation", erasure and retouching of lithographic stones, with comments relating to the various lithographic test proofs bound at the end of the volume.
The work also contains the transcription of a letter from the lithographer Benoît Lemoine (dated 26 June 1828) who was delighted to have been able to retouch a stone using this new process (see proofs 14 and 15 of the Mémoire).
The work concludes with a list of the Épreuves servant de pièces à l'appui des faits contenus dans notre Mémoire, listing 15 proofs (12 are present in this copy).
These new processes were presented to ‘Commissioners at the Institute and the Société d'Encouragement’, and it was Anselme Payen (1795-1871, chemist and discoverer of the first enzyme and cellulose), as a member of the Comité des arts chimiques de la Société d'Encouragement, who witnessed these new demonstrations, signing certain proofs on 21 May 1828 between various stages of erasure and retouching.
Given the success of this first attempt, the stone erasing experiment was repeated two months later (26 July 1828), again in the presence of Anselme Payen, but also Edme-Francois Jomard (1777-1862) and Charles-Philibert de Lasteyrie (1759-1849), one of the very first French lithographers.
This was the occasion for the publication of the Deuxième mémoire sur la lithographie et sur des procédés de retouche et d'effaçage (also 9 pp. lithographed). Only one copy of this memoir has survived, now in the Firestone Library at Princeton University. It contained only 9 proofs of lithographic essays.
An extended printed version of these first two memoirs was later published under the title Mémoire sur l'art du lithographe : amélioration à y apporter (Paris, Impr. de Cosson, 1829. 45 pp. 4 plates. Likely edition of 50 copies).
Alphonse Chevallier published a Traité complet de la lithographie, ou Manuel du lithographe, much later, in 1838.
Details of the 12 lithographic proofs contained in this copy of this first Mémoire sur quelques améliorations apportées à l'art de la lithographie:
• Proofs 1, 2 and 3 ‘L'Alchimiste’: one reference proof, one proof erased in half, and one proof erased and retouched (Commentary on pages 5 and 8 of the Mémoire).
• [Proof 4 missing: it showed 6 drawings of small landscapes].
• Proof 5: A proof showing a set of 6 small retouched landscapes (Commentary on pages 7 and 8 of the Mémoire).
• Proof 6: A proof showing a drawing made by Mr Bour on an erased stone using the authors' process (Commentary on page 5 of the Mémoire).
• [Proofs 7 and 8 missing, ‘Vue de la Vigie de la Hève’: one reference proof and one retouched and added print. It should be noted that these two proofs are not commented on and that it is only stated that the results obtained on these proofs were the same as those for ‘Paysage esquissé’ (see following proofs)].
• Proofs 9, 10 and 11, ‘Sketched Landscape’: one proof representing a sketched landscape, and two proofs with successive additions of numerous details (Commentary page 8 of the Mémoire).
• Proofs 12 and 13, ‘Vue des environs de Civita-Castellane’: one reference proof and one proof with modifications to many elements of the landscape (Commentary on pages 5, 6 and 8 of the Mémoire).
• Proofs 14 and 15, ‘Vue de la porte de Vichy la ville’: one reference proof and one proof that has been erased and retouched with a complete reworking of the sky (Commentary on pages 8 and 9 of the Mémoire).
The only known copy of this pioneering memoir on lithographic art, containing 12 proofs of these new processes.
6 500€
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