Mémoire Sur Les Expériences Litrographiques.
Toulon, A.-M.-A. Aurel 1819.
(203 x 122 mm.). [vi], viii, 210p. and ONE LARGE FOLDING SHEET WITH TWO LITHOGRAPHED PLATES showing the tools of the trade.
Contemporary pebbled sheep-backed pastepaper boards (rubbed), marbled endleaves, edges sprinkled brown, green silk marker.
First Edition. Raucourt had been tasked with establishing the press at the École Royale des Ponts et Chaussées. He wrote the guide for beginners that he wished he would have had to hand. He discusses the art’s history, science, materials, presses, tools, inks and technique before diving into illustrating books with music, architecture, calligraphy and embroidery patterns. He compares it with intaglio process, highlighting lithography’s economy. Raucourt’s manual was immediately translated into English by C.J. Hullmandel (1789-1850), “a crucial figure for the development of the artistic potential of lithography” (Hults). In good condition (light spots, slight tear in inner margin of folding plate not affecting image), bookplate of the historian Marcel Dunan (1885-1978), a few light pencil marks and one annotation.
¶Raucourt, A Manual of Lithography tr. Hullmandel xi-xiv; Hults, The Print in the Western World 431-3; Twyman, Lithography 1800-1850 109-14; Bigmore & Wyman, Bibliography of Printing II: 240; Pennell, Lithography and Lithographers passim.
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