Chansons de P.J. Béranger Anciennes, Nouvelles et Inédites

Paris: Baudouin Frères, Éditeurs, 1828. Pierre-Jean de Béranger "The Most Popular French Songwriter of All Time"
"The First Superstar of French Popular Music"
Thirty Three (of Forty, as is often the case) Hand Colored Lithograph Plates by Henri Monnier

MONNIER, Henri, illustrator. Chansons de P.J. Béranger Anciennes, Nouvelles et Inédites, avec des vignettes de Devéria et des dessins coloriées d'Henri Monnier. Suivies des Procès Intentés a l'Auteur. Paris: Baudouin Frères, Éditeurs, 1828.

First edition. Two octavo volumes (8 1/4 x 5 1/8 inches; 209 x 130 mm.). [ii], [1]-439, 1, blank]; [ii], [1]-438 pp.
Bound without the half-titles and the additional four-page preface in volume one. Plate 18 (Le Maitre D'École) and the following two leaves of text (pp. 135-138 with neatly repaired tears (marginal on plate). Light scattered foxing throughout, mainly affecting text only.

**Thirty-three (of forty) superb hand colored lithograph plates by Henri Monnier and numerous charming black & white vignettes by Achille Devèria. The plates that were never included in this copy are numbers: 21, 26, 28, 31, 35, 37, & 39. (These seven plates are highlighted below within the listing of all 40 plates).

Contemporary English, bead-grain, brown morocco, covers elaborately decorated in gilt and blind. Spines with four raised bands elaborately tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments, powder blue coated endpapers, all edges gilt. Spines slightly darkened, light rubbing to extremities. With the armorial bookplate of Stephens Lyne Stephens on front pastedowns. A very good copy in a contemporary binding.

**"The forty drawings by Henri Monnier, lithographed with a pen on stone and colored with a brush, are very rare complete. Seven of these lithographs are often missing, they are: The Court Dress, The Exile, The Good Old Man, The Marquise of Pretintaille, The Flight of Love, The Voyager, The two Grenadiers." (Carteret III, p. 72).

KVK locates no complete copies; OCLC locates just one complete copy in libraries and institutions worldwide: Paris-Est Marne-La-Vallee-Bu (France).

Pierre-Jean de Béranger (1780-1857) was a prolific French poet and chansonnier (songwriter), who enjoyed great popularity and influence in France during his lifetime, but faded into obscurity in the decades following his death. He has been described as "the most popular French songwriter of all time" and "the first superstar of French popular music". The Chansons were composed with fastidious care and are most notable for their clarity, wit and incisiveness, however the socialist and revolutionary content of his songs resulted in several brushes with the authorities, resulting in his nine month incarceration in La Force Prison.

Stephens Lyne-Stephens (1801-1860) was an English Tory politician who represented Barnstaple before the 1832 Reform Act. After inheriting a family fortune from glass manufacture in Portugal, he was later reputed to be the richest commoner in England.

The plates:

1. Le Roi d'Yvetot
2. La Bacchante
3. Le Sénateur
4. La Gaudriole
5. Roger Bontemps
6. Ma Grand'Mère
7. Ma Mère Aveugle
8. Le Petit Homme Gris
9. La Bonne Fille
10. L'Éducation des Demoiselles
11. Madame Grégoire
12. Les Gueux
13. Le Vieux Célibataire
14. Le Commencement du Voyage
15. Requête des Chiens de Qualité
16. Vieux Habits! Vieux Galons!
17. Le Nouveau Diogène
18. Le Maitre d'École
19. La Chatte
20. Bon Vin et Fillette
21. L'Habit de Cour ***(p. 205)
22. Ce n'est plus Lisette
23. L'Hiver
24. la Bonne Vieille
25. La Vivandière
26. L'Exilé ***(p. 285)
27. La Bouquetière et le Croque-Mort
28. Le Bon Vieillard ***(p. 315)
29. L'Aveugle de Bagnolet
30. Les Cartes ou L'Horoscope
31. La Marquise de Pretintaille ***(p. 402)

32. Le Tailleur et la Fée
33. Le Violon Brisé
34. Les Hirondelles
35. La Fuite de l'Amour ***(p. 87)
36. Le Vieux Sergent
37. Le Voyageur ***(p. 111)
38. Le Grenier
39. Les Deux Grenadiers ***(p. 169)
40. Les Souvenirs du Peuple

Champfleury, Monnier p.364; Escoffier, The Romantic Movement N°675; Marie, 653-692; Vicaire I-402.