Le Diable Boiteux A Paris

Paris: Chez Ostervald ainé, 1830. The Lame Devils of Paris"
Exceptionally Rare Suite of Six Hand Colored Lithographed Plates

[SCHEFFER, Jean-Gabriel]. J.S -. Le Diable Boiteux A Paris, Par Gabriel Scheffer. [Paris: Chez Ostervald ainé, 1830.

First edition. Part one only (of two). Oblong quarto (9 1/8 x 12 3/8 inches; 232 x 315 mm.).

Publisher's pictorial front wrapper and six (of twelve?) superb hand-colored plates (plain rear wrapper supplied in matching tan paper). An exceptionally fine copy. The wrapper has "1er. Livraison" in manuscript ink at bottom of front wrapper.

The Plates:

1. Étudians
2. Grisettes
3. Aristocratie Financiere
4. Éducation
5. Aristocratie Pure
6. Industriels

We have only ever seen this suite Le Diable Boiteux a Paris (The Lame Devils of Paris) once before. That copy had eleven of the twelve plates - it was missing "Industriels" which is present in this copy. The hand coloring is bright and fresh and the scenes are quite amusing...

The contemporary manners, customs, and costumes of Parisian society in typical scenes, illustrated with great charm and wry,understated humor by Swiss genre painter and lithographer Jean Gabriel Scheffer (1797-1876), who studied with Regnault and was a friend of Corot, Aligny, and Léopold Robert. His work was shown at the Salon de Paris beginning in 1822; his reputation as a designer of many wryly humorous lithographs, typically signed "J.S.," was firm. (See Benezit Vol. 9, p.354). Closely associated with printer-publisher Chez Martinet and lithographer Villain, Scheffer also created Scènes de jeunes gens (1825), Ce qu'on dit et ce qu'on pense (1829), and Petits travers (1830) with them.

Extremely rare with no copies located in libraries worldwide (OCLC & KVK).