Report: French binder on the Centennial Expo 1876

May 11, 2022

Lot 94

Report: French binder on the Centennial Expo 1876

Estimate: $400 - $600

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[1876 Invasion of the French Trade Unions] -[Victor WYANTS (1831-1906)]. [A French Bookbinder in the US] Exposition Universelle de Philadelphie. 1876. Délégation ouvrière libre. Relieurs. Paris: se vend chez tous les libraires, 1879. 12mo. (185 x 125mm). 245 pp, 1 f. Two plates showing bindings executed by Lortic, illustrations. (Some toning.) Contemporary binding of salmon-colored patterned cloth, leather lettering-piece to the flat spine, patterned endpapers, original wrappers bound in, top gilt edges (light soiling to binding).

Rare, very interesting report, survey and travelogue, written before, during and after the Universal (Centennial) Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876 by the French bookbinder/gilder Victor Wynants.

The French Trade Unions sent quite a substantial delegation to the Centennial Expo. in Philadelphia. Bookbinders were amongst the trades represented, and the present work (rare in the US) is the report prepared by Victor Wynants, who was one of the representatives of the ‘relieurs’ union.

The report contains the history of the delegation, an account of the trip from Paris to Philadelphia, of the stay and of the return journey, also include are impressions of American life, and (of course) a report on the exhibition of bookbindings. In addition there are extended answers to 27 specific questions, as well as conclusions, including a number of suggestions for the consideration of the French union

The author, Victor Wynants came from a dynasty of bookbinders. He worked for Higel and Amand before setting up on his own around 1880 and later teaching at the École Estienne from 1896 to 1903.

Litt.: “The French Trade Union Delegation to the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, 1876” by Philip S. Forer, published in Science & Society Vol. 40, No. 3 (Fall, 1976), pp. 257-287 (31 pages).

OCLC 27397688 (7 copies, all in France) & 81900315 (1 copy in the Netherlands).

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