La Musette. Recueil d’élucubrations versifiées des Typos de l’Imprimerie Nouvelle. [puis] des Typo-poètes de France. [puis] des petits poètes et chansonniers de France.
Paris, Imprimerie Nouvelle, 1883-1887.
46 issues and 3 additional issues in 2 in-8 volumes (255 x 180 and 320 x 180 mm), red half-percaline (period binding).
Complete collection of this hard-to-find workers' magazine written by and for Imprimerie Nouvelle typographers.
The Imprimerie Nouvelle was a Parisian workers' cooperative founded in 1865, and headed for many years by typographer Georges Masquin (1824-1888).
"Our subscribers, and especially our collaborators in Paris, [...] will find us rue Cadet - at the scrapyard or by the cup - every Sunday morning until noon."
La Musette was founded by typographers G. Delavande, Eugène Paris and Honoré Varlet.
The content is mostly versified, but bears direct witness to the life of the typos, their pasts, news and concerns.
Examples include communications and mailings between workers, reminiscences of the Commune and Louise Michel, the death of Victor Hugo, and the organization of competitions and strikes.
It is illustrated with numerous small vignettes, and contains a few original typographical compositions such as acrostic poems.
Titles naturally revolve around typography: Les enfants de Gutenberg, A la typographie parisienne, Petit vocabulaire typo-typique, La philanthro-typoterie, Les crans d'un correcteur, A la chambre syndicale typo-litho dijonnaise, etc.
The advertising sections bear witness to the workers' solidarity among typographers, highlighting brochures published, for example, to benefit a widow or a blind typographer. There are also advertisements for other magazines such as Typo-tam-tam and Le Réveil typographique. Organe du Cercle d'études sociales, Les Prévoyants de l'avenir Société civile de retraites pour typo, or Le Chorale typographique parisien.
Most of the magazine's typographer-contributors signed their names, providing an important list of worker-poets.
This collection contains the three special issues printed on pink paper, La Musette polissonne, which led to the manager being charged with indecent exposure. The police seized the stock of the third issue (41 bis), and the magazine was discontinued following the trial.
2 200€
In stock
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