TAMBOURS ET TROMPETTES

Paris: Devambez, 1918. No. 287 OF 475 COPIES, from a total issue of 500. 470 x 375 mm. (18 1/2 x 14 3/4"). 1 p.l. followed by plates.
Loose as issued within original wrappers and housed in publisher's paper board folio (spine repaired with shipping tape), upper cover with hand-colored lithograph vignette, original (somewhat worn but intact) tri-color silk ribbon ties. With illustrated title page and 10 HAND-COLORED PLATES IN POCHOIR. Rear board with "can't dupl." in black marking pen. ◆Corners and edges somewhat worn, just a hint of soiling to boards, but a very desirable copy, the inelegantly repaired portfolio with obvious condition issues, but the richly colored plates--the important part of this item--especially clean, fresh, and well preserved in general.

This is a copy of French caricaturist and illustrator Guy Arnoux's vivid homage to those musical instruments and musicians leading the French into battle from the Revolution through World War I. Arnoux (1886-1951) illustrated almost 80 books, including several of outstanding print quality, for Parisian publisher Devambez. The army and patriotism were favorite themes of this scion of a military family, his body of work, as here, possessing a degree of charming chauvinistic naiveté. As an indication of his versatility, between 1912 and 1925 he produced work for the celebrated Parisian fashion review, "La Gazette du Bon Ton." The large format plates here--hand-colored using the pochoir stencil process--are animated and extremely vibrant..