L'Art d'engraisser et de Maigrir a Volonté [&] Mr. Papillon [&] Pincez-moi à la Campagne!!

Paris: Maison Martinet, 1856. Three of Cham's Rarest Works with Sixty Wonderful Hand-Colored Lithograph Plates

CHAM (pseudonym of Amédée de Noé). Three complete works bound together in one volume - L'Art d'engraisser et de Maigrir a Volonté. [&] Mr. Papillon [&] Pincez-moi à la Campagne!!

First editions. Folio (12 11/16 x 9 7/8 inches; 326 x 251 mm.). Three pictorial hand colored lithograph title-pages and a total of sixty hand colored lithograph plates heightened with gum arabic. Plates lithographed by Fernique & Destouches.

Bound together in late nineteenth century olive green buckram over boards, marbled endpapers. Spine a little rubbed, the plates bright and fresh with superb hand-coloring.

The Art of Gaining Weight and The Art of Losing Weight
Twenty Highly Amusing Multi-Image Hand Colored Lithograph Plates by Cham

CHAM [Pseudonym of Charles Amédée de Noé]. L'Art d'Engraisser et de Maigrir a Volonté. [The art of gaining and losing weight with willpower]. Paris: Maison Martinet, [1857].

Pictorial hand colored lithograph title-page and twenty hand colored lithograph plates, heightened with gum Arabic, and containing seventy-nine images. Plates lithographed by Fernique.

A highly amusing album depicting the adventures of the very thin Mr. Lesec who wants to gain weight and the rather plump Mr. Legras who wants to lose weight... Both Mr. Lesec and Mr. Legras are getting married and there is much going on in their households. They leave jointly for Algeria and go lion hunting... this adventure unfortunately causes Mr. Legras to gain weight and Mr. Lesec to lose several kilos. The same thing happens during a subsequent adventure with a camel.... Unfortunately, the two friends leave Algeria for Italy, then for Turkey, Crimea, India, where they live multiple adventures that leave them in their respective physical states. They both decide to return to France, Mr Legras dies from being severely overweight - and the very depressed Mr Lesec just gets thinner and thinner and eventually also dies...

Somewhat scarce with OCLC locating just four colored copies in libraries and institutions worldwide: The Morgan Library & Museum (NY); University of Chicago (IL); Boston Public Library (MA); Victoria & Albert Museum (London, UK). There are also two other 'uncolored' copies: Kunstbiblio Staatliche Museen Zu Berlin (Germany) & National Library of Poland Biblioteka Naro (Poland).


Mr. Papillon's Highly Amusing Voyage Around the World
Love and Romance in Various Countries

CHAM [Pseudonym of Charles Amédée de Noé]. Mr. Papillon ou L'Amour Autour du Monde. Paris: Maison Martinet, [1856].

Pictorial hand-colored lithograph title-page and twenty hand-colored lithograph plates, heightened with gum Arabic and containing sixty-eight amusing images. The plates clean and fresh with superb hand coloring. Plates lithographed by Fernique.

Mr. Papillon's highly amusing voyage around the world depicting love and romance in different countries.

Rare. OCLC locates just one copy in libraries and institutions worldwide: Bibliotheque Nationale de France.


Pinch Me, I'm In the Country!!
Now, Get Me Out of Here
The Scarcest Cham of All?

CHAM (pseud. of Amédée de Noé). Pincez-moi a la campagne!! Paris: Maison Martinet, n.d. [c. 1860].

Pictorial hand-colored lithographed title-page and twenty hand-colored lithographed plates, heightened with gum Arabic and containing eighty-six humorous scenes with captions. Plates lithographed by Destouches.

Original quarter green pebble-cloth over green grained-paper boards with blindstamped decoration and gilt lettering.

Of Amédée de Noé, "known as Cham (that is, Ham, the son of Noah)...it was said that he had ‘an idea a day' for Le charivari. A good proportion of his thousands of lithographs were gathered into albums. His contributions to the Album du siège (173), in which Daumier was his collaborator, are typical of his work" (Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book, pp. 155-156).

In the ninety-seven years (since 1923) that ABPC has been recording auction results not a single copy of this work has fallen under the hammer. All albums by Cham are scarce; the volume under notice is extremely so. Only eight copies survive in institutional holdings worldwide.

The gently amusing trials of an urban gentleman preparing for a vacation in the French countryside and the hilarious tribulations once he arrives. In essence, Woody Allen leaves Manhattan for the Catskills and copes with nature and rural life.

CHAM, pseudonym of Charles Amédée de Noé (1818-1879). "It is to be regretted that space will not serve to represent the caricaturists and depictors of manners who followed in the wake of Daumier and Gavarni. Among the most attractive of the former is Amédée de Noé, known as Cham (that is, Ham, the son of Noah) of whom it was said that he had ‘an idea a day' for Le charivari. A good proportion of his thousands of lithographs were gathered into albums. His contributions to the Album du siège , in which Daumier was his collaborator, are typical of his work"
(Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book, pp. 155-156).