?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 12,000 - $ 18,000
COVER BY ALEXANDRE CHARPENTIER (1856-1909)
L'ESTAMPE MODERNE. Complete set of 100 plates. 1897-1899.
Sizes vary, each approximately 16x12 inches, 40x30 cm. F. Champenois, Paris. Condition generally A- / B+: minor foxing and staining in some plates; pencil notations on the verso of each; in original folio, including itemized list and paste-in. With one fascicle.
L'Estampe Moderne was published between May 1897 and April 1899. As with Les Maitres de l'Affiche, every month, four prints were issued to subscribers, delivered in a portfolio sleeve designed by Mucha. In all, there were 100 images. However, as the name implies, these were not posters but prints, designed by many of the popular artists of the day. The technical and editorial team responsible for publishing the works was among the best of its day: the printer was Champenois, and the directors were Charles Piazza (who published Mucha's Ilsée and Le Pater), and Charles Masson, the director of the Musée du Luxembourg. The print run was limited to 2000 copies, with an additional 100 printed on Japan paper. Although all of the prints were designed especially for this portfolio, different printing techniques were used, as some are lithographs and some are collotypes. Charpentier, whose monogram appears on the cover of this portfolio, was a lesser-known but prolific Art Nouveau artist. He was a founding member of "L'Art dans Tout," and was adept at woodworking, medal-design, terracotta, and furniture design. One of his lithographic designs is featured as a plate in Les Maitres de L'Affiche, and he was the creator of the blind stamp on each plate of the 1893-5 L'Estampe Originale portfolio (Lugt 819).
