FABRIQUE DE PIPES EN BRUYÈRE DE GRAPPIN-DALLOZ

St. Claude (Jura), France: Grappin-Dalloz, 1880. First edition. Very good.. Original hectographed catalogue of carved briar smoking pipes from French manufacturer Grappin-Dalloz - likely produced for use by company representatives. Rare trade catalogue from the renowned pipe-making town of Saint-Claude with a rather durable construction that suggests it was produced for the use of traveling company agents. Manufacturer Grappin-Dalloz was just one of many companies in the Jura department of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France, an area known for centuries as one of the premier wood-carving regions in all of Europe. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, the city was most famous for its carved briarwood pipes, which were sold throughout the continent, often by salesmen using catalogues such as this one.

Featuring more than 600 pipe designs in silhouette, many remarkably ornate (including carved heads and animals like dogs and hoses), the vast majority of the volume is hectographed. Not only is this the largest and longest hectographed publication from this period we've encountered, it was duplicated with remarkable technique. The dramatic title page as well as pipes designs exhibiting fine lines, shading, and other sophisticated details suggest a skilled and experienced user - one who would have had to dedicate dozens (if not hundreds) of hours to its creation. Several pages of blank pipe outlines, as well as ten pages of hand-drawn pipes and an annotated 6-page index at the end of the volume, demonstrate the catalogue was an evolving tool for salespeople. In addition, the method of duplication (as well as the inlaid pipe wood samples mounted inside the front cover) implies a rather small edition size of perhaps a few to several dozen, with a sales force of similar size. Indeed, it is a publication that likely would have not existed if not for the underlying hectographic technology, as reproducing such drawings by any other method available at the time would almost certainly have been prohibitively expensive.

Our research located a description of a similar volume from the same company, where it was noted it was printed using the "autographic" process. This was one of dozens of colloquial and genericized terms for hectography that proliferated at the time - representing an early example of one of the challenges in identifying in copying and duplicating processes, even when it is ostensibly identified within a document or publication itself. Given hectograph's small print runs and general fragility (fugitive to light, water soluble), as well as the document's overall ephemerality, a rare catalogue executed via a rare and early duplication method. 12.25'' x 9''. Original quarter-bound black leather over black pebbled gilt-titled cloth with bolted brass corners. Marbled endpapers. [6], 220, [6] pages. (Note: dates on title page refer to company founding and date of the Exposition in Lyon - not publication.) Some starting here and there; a few prelims loosened. Mild foxing to edges of text block.