Ten Saints in a plastic folder

 

With the new book finished and delivered, I'm according myself a little 'time off', which inevitably means a bit of springcleaning ... I'm doing well. Caseloads of 'stuff' have walked out the doors recently, heading to all sorts of parts of the world ... and I'm getting down to what seem to be the last folders ... one of which contains these ...

They are engravings, the work of the well-known Parisian graveur Jean Chièze, and they seem to date from 1941-4: part of the series of Les Saints-Patrons des corporations. I guess Ian bought them when he was in France, being a war-correspondent. Alas, I see that there are supposed to be twelve in the set, and unless two are stuck together, I have ten, plus a duplicate of Saint Bernard-de-Menthon, the patron saint of mountain climbers ... oh, perhaps they are from my father's alpinistic family!

I have Saints Yves, Laurent, Nicolas (jolly sailor boys), Bernard de Menthon, Fiacre, Georges, Éloi, Jean de Porte Latine, Cécile and Honoré. So that means I'm missing Sainte Catherine, patron saint of needlewomen, Saint Hubert, patron saint of hunters and ... oh! there are obivously more than twelve .. Saints Crépin and Crépinien, patrons saints of shoemakers, Saints Come and Damien, patron sainst of doctors, Saint Vincent, patron saint of wine-makers...

I see that the whole thing was published by Aubanel in 1942 in black and white, and has been reprinted since. Black and white!

But the magical thing about these engravings is their miraculous, brilliant colours. Mine are fresh as a newborn buttercup: I would guess they have been in this same folio ... an impulse purchase in the rue Faubourg Saint-Honoré eighty years ago ... since they came from the press. They really ought to come out ... imagine all ten, en bloc, featured on the wall of a chic French restaurant ...

And now I suppose I ought to find out just how many go to make up the set ... before I put them back in the folio ... oh! there is a series of Patron-Saints of Métiers as well? Wait a moment. A Danish antiquarian lists them ...

Jean Chièze - Les saints patrons de Metiers des France. Douze images graées par Jean Chièze. Collection dirigée par Renée Moutard-Uldry. Originalkartonmappe mit einer Textseite und zwölf Holzschnitten, welche die Heiligen (französischen) Berufsgruppen darstellen. Sehr schöne und farbfrische Exemplare. Nummeriert, hier Exemplar 66 von 450 Exemplaren. Zustand: Die Mappe mit Gebrauchsspuren und lichtrandig, die Blätter gut erhalten und sehr farbfrisch - guter Zustand.

Edition originale. Tirée à 450 exemplaires sur Ingres des papeteries d'Arches. Les planches gravées représentent Saint Nicolas (marins, enfants et marchands de vin), Saint Yves (avocats), Saint Vincent (vignerons), Saint Come et Saint Damien (médecins, chirurgiens et pharmaciens), Saint Fiacre (jardiniers, horticulteurs et fleuristes), Saint Crépin et Saint Crépinien (cordonniers), Saint Eloi (orfèvres), Saint Hubert (chasseurs et forestiers), Sainte Catherine (couturières), Saint Honoré (boulangers), Saint Bernard de Menthon (alpinistes) et Saint Jean Porte Latine (imprimeurs).

On dear, thats 9 of my ten, but I have Sainte Cécile instead of Sainte-Catherine. Maybe it was a sort of supermarket mix-and-match thing. You picked the ten Saints you wanted? I got music, and gold, a double helping of mountains and even sailor-boys but oh ... I missed out on wine!  And I seem to have missed out on being numerotéd as well.

Well, back in the box boys. The web says you're worth about 35-75 euros apiece. I really think for that you ought to get out and show your colours to the world ...