RIBEYRE (FELIX). - Lot 105

Lot n° 105
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500 - 600 EUR
RIBEYRE (FELIX). - Lot 105
RIBEYRE (FELIX). Voyage en Lorraine de Sa Majesté l'impératrice et de S.A.I. le Prince impérial, précédé du Voyage de S.M. l'impératrice à Amiens. Paris, Henri Plon, 1867 (printed March 1867). Large oblong folio, (6 of which the last blank)-58-(2) pp. with the introductory leaf printed in gilt ink mitered, dark green half-chagrin and green chagrined percaline boards, double gilt fillet framing the boards with crowned imperial eagles in spandrels, gilt title on the first board; spine and boards faded, faux-title and some margins dusted (modern binding). First edition in bookshops, published a few weeks after the original, which was distributed by subscription at the end of 1866 to only 165 numbered copies (with captioned serpents, unlike here). LITTLE ILLUSTRATION featuring mainly city views and scenes. 8 hors texte plates mounted on tabs, including: a copperplate by Adrien Nargeot after Henry de Montaut, an etching by Jules Jacquemart after Ernest Meissonier, and 6 woodcuts by various artists. 35 woodcut vignettes in the text. The text pages are framed with the empress's woodcut cipher, embossed in mauve or rose. A HIGHLY POLITICAL VOYAGE. The imperial authorities organized several trips by the sovereigns to France, and one to Algeria, to maintain popular support for the regime. Such was the case in Lorraine, for the celebrations organized in Nancy from July 14 to 19, 1866, to mark the centenary of its annexation. Probably a local initiative, the festivities included two parades in Place Stanislas, in which Lorraine's own past was honored. However, this took place a year after a campaign by the Lotharingist movement to promote Lorraine's identity and decentralization in line with the treaty of union of the Lorraine duchies with France. This was not well received by the imperial regime, which was inclined to see it as an expression of anti-establishment or even independence tendencies. Napoleon III himself was unable to attend due to ill health and the international situation (Austria's defeat by Prussia at Sadowa), but the Empress did attend, accompanied by the Prince Imperial. Having been a member of the Council of Ministers since 1866, her status was important, and she took advantage of the opportunity to visit Amiens on July 4, where cholera was raging, and to visit charitable institutions in Lorraine. AN IMPERIAL PROPAGANDA BOOK. Each imperial journey was published at the time, but only two of them were illustrated, including the present work, which has a distinctly official character, coming from the presses of Henri Plon, "the emperor's printer". Napoleon III is magnified as "the mediator of Europe", and the Empress is portrayed as a beneficent authority on the side of the most modest, those who suffer - her presence in the epidemic zone of Amiens even reactivating the traditional image of thaumaturgic sovereigns. The book points out that the Empress's travels were carried out by specially chartered trains, to underline the technological progress made possible by the Second Empire, and it pays particular attention to local industrial and craft production, to emphasize the region's economic dynamism. The Voyage en Lorraine also highlights the regime's links with the First Empire, when the integration of the duchies into France was completed, by mentioning personalities such as Marshals Oudinot and Exelmans, originally from Bar-le-Duc. Through the various historical reminders it exploits, "THIS ALBUM CAN BE SEEN AS A VERITABLE EXERCISE IN REECRITURES OF FRENCH-LORRAINE HISTORY [... It] teaches us that - in the end - the history of the region has always been part of national history" (Sophie Mouton, in La réunion à la france des duchés de Lorraine et ses conséquences, Nancy, Académie de Stanislas et al., 2016, p. 96). Provenance: IMPERATRICE EUGENIE (ex-libris stamp with her crowned cipher, on the title), then Jean-Claude Lachnitt (vignette and bookplate).
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