< Back

Very rare Album with music composed by Queen Hortense of Holland, together with six lithographs of her paintings

GARDE-CHAMBONAS, Le comte August Louis Charles de la --, & HORTENSE de Beauharnais, Reine de Hollande
Livre d'art de la Reine Hortense. Une visite à Augsburg, esquisse biographique, lettres, dessins, et musique. (second decorated title: Album artistique de la Reine Hortense).

With a dedication leaf printed in gold, second coloured lithographed title hightened with gold, lithographed portrait of Queen Hortense (13 x 19 cm) by Léon Noel, 7 chromolith. decorated lvs. (with a bouquet of flowers in the centre with banderol containing 7 different texts; printed in two colours: green/gold, blue/gold, green/silver, rose/silver, and yellow/silver, the first with the bouquet coloured by hand), a facsimilé of the Queen's handwriting, 6 lithogr. plates (ca. 13 x 19 cm) by F. Sorrieu after paintings by the Queen, and 24 pp. with musical scores; all text lvs. within a decorated gold border, all printed by the Lithogr. firm Lemercier at Paris. 

With a dedication leaf printed in gold, second coloured lithographed title hightened with gold, lithographed portrait of Queen Hortense (13 x 19 cm) by Léon Noel, 7 chromolith. decorated lvs. (with a bouquet of flowers in the centre with banderol containing 7 different texts; printed in two colours: green/gold, blue/gold, green/silver, rose/silver, and yellow/silver, the first with the bouquet coloured by hand), a facsimilé of the Queen's handwriting, 6 lithogr. plates (ca. 13 x 19 cm) by F. Sorrieu after paintings by the Queen, and 24 pp. with musical scores; all text lvs. within a decorated gold border, all printed by the Lithogr. firm Lemercier at Paris. 

With a dedication leaf printed in gold, second coloured lithographed title hightened with gold, lithographed portrait of Queen Hortense (13 x 19 cm) by Léon Noel, 7 chromolith. decorated lvs. (with a bouquet of flowers in the centre with banderol containing 7 different texts; printed in two colours: green/gold, blue/gold, green/silver, rose/silver, and yellow/silver, the first with the bouquet coloured by hand), a facsimilé of the Queen's handwriting, 6 lithogr. plates (ca. 13 x 19 cm) by F. Sorrieu after paintings by the Queen, and 24 pp. with musical scores; all text lvs. within a decorated gold border, all printed by the Lithogr. firm Lemercier at Paris. 

With a dedication leaf printed in gold, second coloured lithographed title hightened with gold, lithographed portrait of Queen Hortense (13 x 19 cm) by Léon Noel, 7 chromolith. decorated lvs. (with a bouquet of flowers in the centre with banderol containing 7 different texts; printed in two colours: green/gold, blue/gold, green/silver, rose/silver, and yellow/silver, the first with the bouquet coloured by hand), a facsimilé of the Queen's handwriting, 6 lithogr. plates (ca. 13 x 19 cm) by F. Sorrieu after paintings by the Queen, and 24 pp. with musical scores; all text lvs. within a decorated gold border, all printed by the Lithogr. firm Lemercier at Paris. 

With a dedication leaf printed in gold, second coloured lithographed title hightened with gold, lithographed portrait of Queen Hortense (13 x 19 cm) by Léon Noel, 7 chromolith. decorated lvs. (with a bouquet of flowers in the centre with banderol containing 7 different texts; printed in two colours: green/gold, blue/gold, green/silver, rose/silver, and yellow/silver, the first with the bouquet coloured by hand), a facsimilé of the Queen's handwriting, 6 lithogr. plates (ca. 13 x 19 cm) by F. Sorrieu after paintings by the Queen, and 24 pp. with musical scores; all text lvs. within a decorated gold border, all printed by the Lithogr. firm Lemercier at Paris. 



Paris, Heugel & Cie. (Typographie Plon frères), ca. 1850-60. Folio oblong (lvs: 27 x 38 cm). Original fine publisher's binding: half green morocco, boards covered with dark green velvet with gilt coat-of arms of Queen Hortense (front cover) and her son Napoleon III (back cover) and gilt corner pieces: honeybees (a symbol for Napoleon), gilt edges, silk end-papers (Olivier, a.o., Manuel de l'amateur de rel. armorisées françaises, Pl. 2658, nr. 2 (reproduces after the present ed.!), and nr. 2659 (Napoleon III)). With a dedication leaf printed in gold, second coloured lithographed title hightened with gold, lithographed portrait of Queen Hortense (13 x 19 cm) by Léon Noel, 7 chromolith. decorated lvs. (with a bouquet of flowers in the centre with banderol containing 7 different texts; printed in two colours: green/gold, blue/gold, green/silver, rose/silver, and yellow/silver, the first with the bouquet coloured by hand), a facsimilé of the Queen's handwriting, 6 lithogr. plates (ca. 13 x 19 cm) by F. Sorrieu after paintings by the Queen, and 24 pp. with musical scores; all text lvs. within a decorated gold border, all printed by the Lithogr. firm Lemercier at Paris.  53 leaves, including (8), 24, (48) pp. text.

Magnificently bound, splendid original and only de-luxe edition of this work on Queen Hortense of Holland, together with examples of her paintings and musical compositions.
The book is dedicated to Louis III, king of France (1808-1873), the son of (Eugenie-) Hortense de Beauharnais (1783-1837), daughter of the Empress Josephine, the wife of Napoleon. She had to marry Louis Bonaparte, the younger brother of Napoléon for political reasons. She became the first queen of Holland in 1806 when Louis became King of Holland (till 1810), but lived in France more often, as far away from her husband as possible. She loved the arts and was a praiseworthy painter and composer. After leaving her husband and the abdication of Napoléon, she lived as 'la Duchesse de St. Leu' on the bords of Lake Constance in Switzerland, where she died in 1837.
The Comte Auguste Louis Charles de la Garde (1783-1853) is, apart from the author of the Fêtes et souvenirs du Congrès de Vienne, also the writer of a great number of songs, and the most renowned composers of the period competed for the honour of setting them to music. Many of these romances were dedicated to Queen Hortense, whose acquaintance he made at Augsburg in 1819. Probably in the early years of the 1850's these appeared in this much prized collection of 12 unpublished songs of the Comte de la Garde, with thei music by the Queen. The romances were inspired by medieval legends and chivalry romances by  She had three sons, one of them the future emperor Napoléon III.
Apart from the 12 romances the collection contains 6 letters written by the queen to the Comte de la Garde and 6 lithographed plates after the paintings by Hortense.

Contents:
- Dedication leaf to Napoléon, empéreur des Français (that is after 1852), printed in gold (verso blank).
- Second chromolithographed title (in red, blue and gold) 'Album artistique de la Reine Hortense' (verso blank).
- Portrait of Queen Hortense (verso blank).
- Title ('Livre d'art ...), printed in green and gold (verso blank).
- Avant-propos by J.L. Heugel, printed in green (verso blank).
- First lithogr. decorated page with bouquet of hand coloured flowers in the centre with vabderolle with the text"Mieux connue, mieux aimée" (verso blank).
- pp. 5-8: the account by the Comte de la Garde of his visit to Augsbourg where he met the Queen: 'Une visite à Augsbourg'.
- pp. 9-16: a short biography of Queen Hortense by Hippolyte Prévost(1808-1873), the inventor of a stenography system: 'Esquisse biographique sur la Reine Hortense'.
- pp. 17-23: 7 numbered letters by Queen Hortense to the Comte de la Garde, 5 dated 11 April - 23 June 1819.
- Facsimilé of letter V (verso blank).
- the 12 romances by the Comte de la Garde, set on music by the Queen, each of them printed on two facing pages (versos blank), alternately preceded by 6 lithographed plates after the romantic paintings by the Queen and 6 decorad pages (see above), the titles being: "Jeunes rêves d'amour", "Une Larme", "Le l'ai reçu", "Lay de l'exil", "Le chant du berceau", and "Devine-moi".

Very fine copy of this rare album.- (Esp. the text lvs. with some spotting, first lvs. with insign. marginal water stain, edges of binding a little bit worn).

Related Subjects: 19th Century  France  Music  Napoleon  Royalty 

Add to Shopping cart
€ 8.500,00

Prices in EUROS (€), shipping and BTW/VAT extra.

< Back

Terms of sale

All items are offered subject to prior sale. Prices are nett and in (€) EURO. VAT/BTW, postage, and insurance are not included. 

Free shipping for orders over € 2,500.  EU customers: if applicable, please quote your VAT number when placing orders.

Preferred mode of payment: by credit card through our secure online payment service, which is facilitated by Ogone. If you wish to make other arrangements, please contact us. Terms of sale

E-mail this to a friend







This is a captcha-picture. It is used to prevent mass-access by robots. (see: www.captcha.net)

Type the characters that you see in the box (5 characters). The code can include characters 0..9 and A..F.*

  


Antiquariaat FORUM B.V.
Tuurdijk 16
3997 MS t Goy-Houten,
The Netherlands
Phone: (+31) (0)30 601 1955
Fax: (+31) (0)30 601 1813
E-mail: info@forumrarebooks.com
Web: http://www.forumrarebooks.com