Földvári Books

Album Amicorum, Depicting Slave Trade and Black Life

[Album Amicorum.] French Autograph Friendship Album with Original Drawings and Paintings.

1824–1844. French manuscript on paper, In contemporary green morocco with gilt-tooled spine and panels (monogram to the center of front panel) and silk moiré endpapers. All edges gilt. Stored in contemporary hard paper slipcase in matching color. Altogether 47 ff. (separated with tissue paper, some leaves removed) with 26 tipped-in entries (of which five are partly or entirely missing). Includes 6 watercolor drawings, 12 pencil and ink drawin. In fine condition.

Extraordinary album amicorum with two watercolors depicting black people, a pencil drawing of slave trade, and a watercolor with Asian theme, besides others. A 19th-century, French autograph friendship album containing 21 elements, including original watercolors, gouache paintings, pencil and ink drawings, a paper cutting, a print, and a pressed flower, spanning the years from 1824 to 1844. The themes of the images vary largely from European city and nature views to African slave trade, including black women doing laundry at a river, black boys playing, a watercolor of a Chinese fisherman, view of the cemetery of “Belidah” (Blida, Algeria), a portrait of a Welsh girl, a battle scene, among others. Most images are tipped-in, many signed (Picard, Aimée, Maury, Longperier, Guignes, D’Ermenonville).

Price: €20,000.00