Les Papillons: leur histoire, la manière de leur faire la chasse et de les conserver; Ouvrage amusant et instructif, Orné de Figures représentant un choix des plus beaux Papillons d'Europe. Dédiée à la Jeunesse

Description:

A rare and charming work by the Parisian bookseller and journalist Eugène Amédée Balland (1796-1829), intended to inspire children in the study and preservation of butterflies and moths. Addressing his youthful readers with enthusiasm, Balland reminds them: ‘Vous êtes au printemps de la vie, et les papillons sont l’ornement du printemps de l’année’- ‘You are in the spring of life, and butterflies are the springtime ornament of the year.’

The book opens with a coloured frontispiece depicting children in the countryside with nets, joyfully engaged in collecting butterflies, while a young man stands by a table carefully preparing a specimen. Six exquisite hand-coloured plates, engraved by Joseph Julien Guillaume Dulompré (b.1789), illustrate caterpillars and adult butterflies and moths, complemented by two charming tailpieces. This copy preserves its original printed wrappers, which themselves display a delightful array of entomological collecting equipment.

Les Papillons reflects the 19th-century fascination with natural history, when scientific exploration and the classification of specimens became an educational and fashionable pursuit. Balland’s aim to nurture youthful curiosity in the natural sciences aligns closely with Enlightenment and Romantic ideals of learning through wonder and direct engagement with nature.

Balland, active as both writer and publisher, co-founded and edited Lettres Normandes, ou Petit Tableau moral, politique et littéraire with Léon Thiessé, and issued L’Observateur des modes (1818-1823) while employed at the Parisian press of Jean-Roch Lottin de Saint-Germain. He also authored numerous popular works for young readers.

Not in Horn-Schenkling or Nissen.

Condition

Oblong small quarto (194x252mm), recent green half calf, gt, marbled boards, original printed pink paper wrappers retained.