ENAMELLED ANIMALS
[ALMANACK.]
L’Esprit des chansonniers, extrain [sic?] des meilleurs poëtes.
Paris, Le Fuel, [1826?].
32mo?, pp. [64], with engraved title and 5 engraved plates, bound with a folding letterpress calendar (J.M. Eberhart for Le Fuel, 1826) with woodcut zodiac vignettes and a [12] pp. engraved calendar with vignette headpieces interleaved with blanks; minor spotting, but a good copy; bound in a high-relief enamelled brass case with animals among foliage, hinged spine of gilt copper and enamel, enamelled clasps to fore-edge, edges gilt, cream moiré pastedowns; textblock detached from case, a few minor chips to enamel; engraved bookplate of Léon Gruel with manuscript catalogue number ‘1293’ tipped in as front flyleaf.
A very rare enamelled metal binding with an enchanting design of birds and squirrels, from the collection of the bookbinder, collector, and bibliographer Léon Gruel.
The enamelled design, featuring swans, peacocks, and squirrels among flowers and foliage, leaves large areas of the metal surface visible, recalling enamelled and jewelled bindings of the Middle Ages rather than the porcelain-like enamel panels seen on German almanacks of the eighteenth century.
The almanack inside comprises three parts: an illustrated literary almanack with a variety of poetry; a folding calendar for 1826, with woodcut zodiac vignettes; and a largely blank diary, with each month headed by an engraved vignette of a profession, among them both ‘l’Imprimeur en Lettres’ and ‘l’Imprimeur en Taille-Douce’.
Provenance: Perhaps the most distinguished French bookbinder of the fin de siècle, Léon Gruel (1841–1923) succeeded his father, Pierre-Paul Gruel, in the atelier of his maternal grandfather Isidore Deforge, founded in 1811. Alongside his commercial work, he collected historic bindings with which to research the history of the craft and published numerous works, most notably the Manuel historique et bibliographique de l’amateur de reliures (1887–1905). The collection was dispersed after his death, with the first portion offered for sale in May 1924.
