Les Frères d'Armes

Paris: Librairie d'Éducation, A. Courcier, Éditeur, 1860. 'Brothers In Arms'
The Italian War of Independence and The Crimean War
The Battles of Magenta, Kinburn and Malakoff

ADAM, Victor, illustrator [&] MOREL-FATIO, Antoine Léon, illustrator. Les Frères d'Armes. Par Th. Midy. Ullustré de six superbes gravures a deux teints par V. Adam et Morel-Fatio. Paris: Librairie d'Éducation, A. Courcier, Éditeur, [1860].

First edition. Folio (12 x 8 3/4 inches; 305 x 222 mm.). [1-2, half-title, verso blank], [3-4 vignette title, verso blank], [5]-38, [1, table des matières], [1, advertsisements] pp. Six fine hand colored lithograph plates. Plates lithographed by Sarazin.

Publisher's color pictorial boards, head and tail of spine chipped, joints slightly cracked, but still a remarkable survival of a very fragile pictorial binding. The text and hand colored plates bright and fresh. Feint early ink inscription (dated 1876) on front free endpaper.

The six hand colored lithograph plates include scenes from The Battle of Magenta which was fought in 1959 during the Second Italian War of Independence; the British and French Navy bombarding the Russian coastal fortifications at Kinburn in 1855 after an Anglo-French ground force had besieged them; and the French forces celebrating their attack against the Russian forces and subsequent capture on the Malakoff redoubt on 8 September 1855 as a part of the siege of Sebastopol during the Crimean War.

OCLC locates just one copy in libraries and institutions worldwide: Kunstbiblio Staatliche zu Berlin (Germany)


Jean-Victor Adam (1801-1867) was a French painter and lithographer. Born in Paris he was the son of Jean Adam, an esteemed engraver. During the years 1814 to 1818 he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and also in the ateliers of Meynier and Régnault. In 1819 he exhibited 'Herminia succouring Tancred.' He was almost immediately afterwards employed to paint various subjects for the Museum at Versailles, amongst which are, 'The Entry of the French into Mainz,' 'The Battle of Varroux,' 'The Taking of Menin, 'The Battle of Castiglione,' 'The Passage of the Cluse,' 'The Battle of Montebello,' 'The Capitulation of Meiningen;' the last three in association with Alaux. He also exhibited down to the year 1838: 'Henry IV., after the Battle of Coutras,' 'Trait of Kindness in the Duke de Berri,' 'The Postillion,' 'The Vivandiere,' 'The Road to Poissy,' 'The Return from the Chase,' 'Horse-fair at Caen,' and numerous other subjects. He then retired from publicity, till 1846, when he appeared as the exhibitor of some works in lithography, to which branch of art he afterwards restricted himself. In this line he produced a lithographic album, 'Views in the Environs of Paris,' 'Studies of Animals for an edition of Buffon,' &c. He obtained a gold medal in 1824, a second class medal in 1836, besides several others from Lille, Douai, and other cities. He died at Viroflay in 1866.

Antoine Léon Morel, later Morel-Fatio (1810-1871) was a French naval painter, Peintre officiel de la Marine, curator of the naval and ethnographic museum of the Louvre, and mayor of the 20th arrondissement of Paris. He added Fatio in 1844 to distinguish himself from a businessman of the same name. It was apparently in reference to a Swiss branch of the family.

The Plates:

1. Bataille de Magenta - The Battle of Magenta
2. Un Marché dans une Petite Ville en Russie - A Market in a small town in Russia
3. Une Noce en Bretagne - A Wedding in Brittany
4. La Flotte Devant Kinburn - The Fleet in front of Kinburn
5. La Flotte Devant Schwaborg - The Fleet in front of Schwaborg
6. Prise de Malakoff - The taking of Malakoff.