Book-plate of Edmund and Jules de Goncourt de Gavarni, [pseud. of Sulpice Guillaume Chevalier] - 1862

1862. Burty's second state, with shadow emphasized. Etching on wove paper by Jules de Goncourt after a design by Gavarni, signed "Gavarni" in the plate. 2-5/8 x 2-1/4 inches (plate). Fine. Burty's second state, with shadow emphasized. Etching on wove paper by Jules de Goncourt after a design by Gavarni, signed "Gavarni" in the plate. 2-5/8 x 2-1/4 inches (plate). Gavarni's bookplate for Edmund and Jules de Goncourt. The brothers wrote a biography of the artist, Gavarni l'homme et l'œuvre, published in 1873.
"Gavarni himself did a book-plate - one of the most exquisite in existence - for his biographers, Edmond and Jules de Goncourt. It is simply a hand, with two of the fingers, the index and the middle, resting on a sheet of paper which bears the initials of the brothers' christian-names. And indeed, the two great writers were as indissolubly united as two fingers on the same hand. This drawing by Gavarni was admirably etched by Jules de Goncourt, whose abilities as an eau-fortiste were proved by the publication of his engravings" (Octave Uzanne, "French Book-plates," in The Studio, vol. 16, p. 53). Burty, Eaux-fortes de Jules de Goncourt, no. 61; not in Béraldi