Page, Lord and Varlets, Antique Hand Colored Costume Print, circa 1882
€ 210
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
circa 1882
Mapmaker / artist
After a tapestry in Berne cathedral, 1440 to 1450
Publisher
F. Roy, editeur, 185 rue Saint-Antoine, Paris
Technique
Woodcut
Coloring
Original hand color
Sheet size
20 × 28.5 cm (7.9 × 11.2 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-13382-26
What the condition grades mean
Excellent
Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good
Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good
Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair
Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Condition
Even age toning. Marked handling soiling along all four edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left and top left corners.
About this sheet
This original antique hand-colored wood engraving shows Page, Lord and Varlets, a plate from Augustin Challamel's La France et les Francais a travers les siecles, Paris, circa 1882. A lord in a short pleated houppelande and a tall hat with his page and two varlets, taken from a tapestry of about 1440 to 1450 in the cathedral at Berne, the figures in rose, olive and dull blue against a plain ground.
The engraving comes from the costume suite of Augustin Challamel's La France et les Francais a travers les siecles, F. Roy, editeur, Paris, circa 1882. Almost every plate in the series cites its source in the caption, a miniature in the Bibliotheque nationale, a tapestry, a picture in the Louvre or a sheet from the Gaignieres collection, and that habit of citation is what lifts the series above the invented costume books of the same decade. The technique is wood engraving, cut on the end grain so that the block could be locked up with the type and printed together with the text, and the color is applied by hand afterwards over the printed line. The washes in this suite are flat and confident, laid in a small number of strong tones, and they cross the engraved outline here and there in the way that only hand work does.
Tapestry is the best surviving evidence for fifteenth century civil dress, and this plate transfers a dated Burgundian hanging directly to paper, which is why the cut of the houppelande and the hose is so specific here. It hangs well singly above a console or in a grid with its companions, where the repeated plain ground and the consistent sheet size give a calm and deliberate effect.
Even age toning. Marked handling soiling along all four edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left and top left corners.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
