CHAM (Charles-Amédée de Noé, dit): L'Art d'engraisser et de - Lot 98

CHAM (Charles-Amédée de Noé, dit): L'Art d'engraisser et de maigrir à volonté. Paris, Maison Martinet, [ca. 1860], gr. in-4, printed yellow publisher's boards (hinges, headpieces and spines rubbed, , light foxing and spotting) Title and 20 numbered lithographed plates. First edition. Complete with illustrated title and 20 original lithographs (4 subjects per page). Unknown to Beraldi, Bitting and Vicaire. This album does not appear in the Inventaire du Fonds Français, which lists 241 suites de Cham. Oberlé, Fastes, 481. Narrated in "comic strip" form, with a most eloquent and humorous pencil, these are the gastronomic adventures of Messieurs Lesec and Legras, two bourgeois subjected to contrary dietary regimes, in Algeria, Italy, Turkey and India. Cham's (Paris 1818-1879) reputation was considerable during his lifetime. "His "Parisian wit without malice enchanted the bourgeoisie under the Second Empire, to the point that readers of Charivari preferred his drawings to those of Daumier. Fonds Français, IV. This album is one of the illustrator's rarest.