(BLOW BOOKS) | Now you see them ….

(BLOW BOOKS)

 A group of 8 late 18th to early 19th-century blow books

All with handcolored engravings, leaves notched or tabbed, bound in variously patterned stiff but flexible wrappers. Wrappers generally well-thumbed.

[Ambigu magique ou tableaux changeans à l'usage de ceux qui n'ont pas berluë. Vol. I. Paris: Chereau et fils, 1778] 64 leaves (152 x 114 mm) comprising 8 double-page spreads of harlequins, priests and abbots, soldiers, flowers, nuns and playing cards, each image captioned; lacks title-page and instruction leaf, light dampstaining along inner margin throughout not affecting images. Beige patterned wrappers — [Nouvel ambigu magique ou second tome des tableaux changeans à l'usage de ceux qui n'ont pas berluë. Vol. II. Paris: Chereau et fils, 1778]. 48 leaves (152 x 114 mm) comprised of 6 double-page spreads with 2 alternating series of images; lacking title-page and instruction leaf. Brown diagonally striped paste paper wrappers — [After Chereau's Ambigu magique, vol. 1] N.p., n.d. [?late 18th century]. 38 leaves (178 x 131 mm) comprising 2 repeated series of double-page spreads; leaves loose; lacking the first pair Harlequins and Peres Turbateur and Clus, and L'Abbe Tise in the first series, a single blank and one Harlequin in the second. Disbound, but retaining front and rear marbled wrappers. —Untitled,  [? French, late 18th century]. 63 leaves (165 x 114 mm) comprising 2 series of 8 double-page spreads (including blanks) each repeated four times, many images after those in both Chereau volumes; first image of potion hawker glued to wrapper, final repeat of series 2 lacking leaf with camel and blank verso, as well as final blank leaf, soiling and staining. Grey marbled wrappers, vellum spine — Untitled. [? French, late 18th century]. 64 leaves (165 x 114 mm) comprising many images after Chereau's Vol. I. in 2 series of double-page spreads, with playing cards being variant images. Glazed pink paper wrappers — An untitled diminutive blow book. N.p., ca. 1830s, comprising 48 leaves (121 x 95 mm) of 8 double-page spreads repeated 5 times, featuring a mirrored images of a pot-bellied dwarf, an old soldier, a women on a donkey, solid bars of color, a bride and groom, a women with an umbrella, a man doffing his hat, and 2 blanks. Glazed green patterned wrappers; spine perished, sewing a bit loose (Ricky Jay, Magic Magic, dwarf illustrated on p. 71, pp. 81–82, n. 31) — Untitled blow book [? French, 1790s] comprising 42 leaves (143 x 108 mm), comprising double-page spreads featuring an elegant woman in an empire dress and bonnet, a woman in ethnic dress with a rifle, a tightrope walker, a man in ethnic dress with a pipe, another with a rifle, an elegant man holding a walking stick and hat; possibly lacking a few leaves. Brown marbled wrappers; spine extremely abraded. — Zauber-Bilderbuch. Leipzig: Max Haack, [ca. 1875]. Title-page with wood engraved vignette, instructions printed on verso of front wrapper, 40 leaves (156 x 105 mm) comprising 5 series of similarly patterned double-page spreads depicting multiple images in color, silhouettes of people, various pairs of men and women, abcdaries, domestic and wild animals, stamps, children at their pastimes; toned, fore-edge of one leaf frayed, lower inner corner of another leaf clipped. Pictorial wrappers featuring a wizard.

The first volume by Chereau contains, in order, double-page spreads of harlequins, priests and abbots, soldiers, flowers, nuns, and playing cards. "The figures are captioned; the nuns, for instance are 'la Mere Goule, la Mere Daillon, la Mere Luche, la Mere Idienne' The priests are identified as 'le Pere Manent, le Pere Oquet, le Pere Turbateur, le Pere Clus'; the abbots are called 'le Abbe Zuche, le Abbe Daine, le Abbe Tise, le Abbe Quille.' These captions are of course puns expressing the anticlerical humor prevalent just prior to the Revolution." (Ricky Jay, Magic Magic, pp. 32–33). La Mere Idienne is a nun asleep at her prie-dieu, a play on méridien, (de midi, a synonym for a midday nap); le Abbe Tise is bêtise (stupid); le Pere Oquet is perroquet (parrot); le Pere Turbateur is perturbateur (troublemaker); and la Mere Daillon carries a chamber pot, is a visual play on the word merde (commonly known in English as s--t).

The second volume, the first series of images contains double-page spreads of cats and rats; low- and highborn women; landscapes (a bridge and a church); bars of solid color paired with patterned bars of color; L'Avocat Patelin (after the lead character in the fifteenth-century eponymous farce) and Le Docteur Diafoirus; canaries and a goose; and finally Pantalone and Gilles (mostly likely Pierrot) who beats a drum and is accompanied by s monkey. The second series of images comprises double-page spreads of sheep and a donkey; a highborn and a lowborn woman; a windmill and the Porcelain Tower of Nanking; patterned bars of color paired with solid bars, M. Purgon (with what appears to be a gigantic enema) and Jean de Nivelle and his dog; a parrot and raven; and finally Pulcinella and a tightrope artist. When Chereau sold his firm in 1787, he had more than 14,000 engraved plates in stock, and had been afforded the capability of producing an endless number of variants.