[Arsenic Collection] Middle Class Conspicuous Consumption : Lebon -Mosaïque Chrétien (1855)

LEBON, Hubert. Mosaïque Chrétien: Littérature, Morale, Histoires, Légends. Paris & Limoges: Chez Martial Ardant Fréres, 1855.

(290 x 200 mm) 192 pp. Sepia toned frontispeice and title page with historiated rondelle. Four inset engravings and embellished throughout with historiated initials and endpeices. Dark green percaline cloth binding with polychromed stamped decoration (includes pale green insets).

ABOUT THE TEXT — 

From the series “Librairie des Bons Livres”

This Christian Mosaic demonstrates the Eugene Ardant’s goal of making fine and improved books accessible to the middle class of France. Combining history with religious instruction for a piece of middle class conspicuous consumption, the beautifully bound (using arsenic-derived Paris Green for detail work) book includes luxurious-seeming touches, like historiated initials with holy scenes incorporated into the decoration around the letter.

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER— Making Beautiful Books Available To All

Martial Ardant began printing books for the youth in Limoges in 1807, inheriting a local printing business from his wife. He had four children, one of whom was Eugene Ardant. The printing business was passed to Eugene in 1837. In his application for a lithographic patent he applied to “make notable improvements to the number of works [they they had published], for the most part intended for the most numerous and the least fortunate of society.” His other three brothers joined within several decades and the Martial Ardant Frères— named after their father— grew in reputation and production ability. They had two mechanical and 11 or 12 hand pressed, along with a cardboard factory (for their beautiful cartonnages romantiques), a paper factory, and a stereotyping workshop. Their production employed more than 20 independent binders in Limoges.

ABOUT THE BINDING— Beautiful but Deadly

The emerald green pigment of on the binding of this book is due to the use of copper acetoarsenite— the cloth contains arsenic. Arsenic was used as a colouring agent for book bindings particularly between the 1840s to the 1860s. Often embellished with gold and blind stamping, as with this example, these bindings appear shiny or coated.