GRUEL, Léon (binder.).

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Paroissien romain d'après les imprimés français du XVme siècle. First edition of this superlative example of Gruel-Engelmann's work. Featuring their pioneering chromolithography, with elaborately framed pages, and finely bound in-house, this luxury production displays the firm's "irreproachable execution" in various aspects of book ornamentation (Prideaux, p. 122). In 1851, a marriage between the Gruel and Engelmann families united the former's bindery with the latter's printing concern, which held a patent for their chromolithographic process. The new business turned to finely produced service books evoking those of the Middle Ages. These devotional volumes were often splendidly bound to mark significant milestones celebrated in church. The wrought-metal clasps seen here incorporate the monogram "M.E.", presumably the initials of the Marie Elizabeth who has signed the first blank with the words "Paris avril 1860", perhaps commemorating her first Communion.

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