Album Polynésien de M. C. Noury, Capitaine de Vaisseau

NOURY, Charles-Gaëtan

Verlag: Olivier Merson, Nantes, 1861

Beschreibung

Folio (390 x 260 mm), 17 leaves in all, untrimmed and unbound as issued, with lithographed title-page and single sheet of description, and 15 lithographed plates,seven of which are coloured and eight in black on a tinted background, on paper watermarked either "Rives" or "D & C Blauw"; in a modern full morocco fitted case. Exceptionally uncommon and most beautiful work on tattooing, ethnography, and decorative carving in the Marquesas; 'd'un grand intérêt ethnographique' (O'Reilly), this is a remarkable collection of images of actual objects and original personal observation made during the early period of French influence in Nuku Hiva. The quality of the illustrated plates is outstanding, and the delicate lithography is a marvellous medium for conveying the immediacy of the original sketches; this very rare work is an important record of French Polynesia in the South Pacific, and is almost unknown on the market. Published by a tiny lithographic press in the author's hometown of Nantes on the French Atlantic coast, the signatures of three artists appear on the various lithographic plates: B. de Girardot, Bourgerel and Alfred Clericeau. Clericeau is also credited as printer of some of the plates, most of which were printed by Olivier Merson in Nantes, who is listed as publisher of the work on the title-page. Baron Girardot Of the three artists, Auguste Théodore, baron de Girardot (1815-1883) was responsible for plates 1-2, 5 and 7-9. He was an archaeologist and antiquary in Nantes, with prolific publications to his name, including numerous lithographs of archaeological objects in similar style to the present work. We speculate that he may have been the overall creator of the work and that the wording of the title, somewhat ambiguous, may refer to the collection of M. Noury rather than crediting the work to him. As Anna Andruszkiewicz's study of Girardot shows, several of Girardot's publications were, like the present work, produced on Olivier Merson's press. Certainly, his involvement in the publication was close: the copy of this work in the Mitchell Library, for example, has a presentation inscription from him. Charles Noury Charles-Gaëtan Noury (1809-1869) was a French naval officer born in Nantes (he was also titled: his father Gabriel Noury was the first Baron Noury). He was promoted capitaine de corvette and second-in-command of the Sirène in 1846, bound for the Pacific. The ship arrived at Papeete in May 1847 where captain Lavaud took over the shore command, leaving Noury in command of the Sirène. Shortly after Noury served for a year as the commandant of Nuku Hiva, the main French settlement in the Marquesas, where he became a student of local customs, researching especially tattooing, cannibalism, and language and evidently a keen collector. An 1849 letter from him preserved in the Mitchell Library discusses his records of the ritual chants sung at human sacrifices, for example, while a collection of more than 1200 shells from Tahiti and the Marquesas was donated by his descendants to the Nantes Museum in 1904. The Sirène returned to France after four years, and Noury continued to serve in the French Navy until 1864, retiring to Nantes. In his retirement he worked on Polynesian natural history and linguistics, and took stock of his collection of South Sea curiosities: given the date of publication here, and the fact that the lithographs are based on sketches by artists other than Noury, it is probably fair to assume that the illustrations depict items in his collection (where are they now?). Noury is not a well-known figure, but there is a helpful potted biography in Father O'Reilly's Tahitiens (1975). Noury also left a manuscript journal illustrated with watercolours devoted to the natural history of Tahiti and the Marquesas which, rediscovered in modern times, was finally published 160 years after its creation by the Royal Academy of Belgium as Voyage en Polynésie (1847-1850). Le bestiaire oublié du capitaine Noury, Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 5000260

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Album Polynésien de M. C. Noury, Capitaine ...

Verlag: Olivier Merson, Nantes

Erscheinungsdatum: 1861