Wednesday 21 December 2016

The single sheets

We all have seen these sad prints, where on the left side of the paper we can make out that it was once upon a time part of a bound volume. Sometimes that edge get cut away, either by readers who used their magazines much the same way we do today. Or later on by print dealers, who's financial interest purely lies with the print.
The print of the left has no markings, while the one on the right shows where it was sewn together with the other pages of its journal

But we ought not to forget, that already in the time period, print dealers sold individual prints, what were never bound, and I'm tickled pink to have found another such reference in the Journal des dames (early January 1804):


Recently an edition of four pages of flowers, printed in colour on good paper and retouched by hand is aw available at Vilquin, the print dealer located at Grand Cour du Palais du Tribunat. These flowers, united in bouquet by twelve to fifteen on every page, are especially designed for young ladies who busy themselves with the drawing of ornamentation, embroider or paint on fabric.
A text of forty to fifty lines comes with every colour print.
The price of the full edition is 24fr. Single pages, without text, cost you 6fr.

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