La peine de mort.
No. 310.
Paris: E. Victor, 1907 Stock Code: 119341
First edition of the visually compelling and famously anarchic illustrated French satirical journal's issue on the death penalty. Published weekly from March 1901 to October 1912, L'Assiette au Beurre eventually totalled 594 issues, each composed of full-page black and white and colour illustrations by a variety of artists, tackling current events and social issues. The English critic and one-time editor of Punch, E. V. Lucas, judged that French comic journals such as "Le Rire, Le Journal Amusant, La Vie Parisienne and scores of cheaper imitations may depend for their living on the one joke; but L'Assiette au Beurre is more serious. L'Assiette au Beurre is first and foremost a satirist. It chastises continually, and its whip is often scorpions. Even its lighter numbers, chiefly given to ridicule, contain streaks of savagery" (Vessels, p. 43). The inflammatory nature of its caricatures made it a target of government suppression, and the authorities often confiscated issues or forbade street sales. As a result the journal assumed an iconic status; at the time it exerted a particularly strong influence on the controversial American socialist journal The Masses, first published in 1911, and later in the 20th century it would be of similar importance to Charlie Hebdo. This issue, La peine de mort, includes illustrations by Aristide Delannoy, Démétrios Galanis, Jules Grandjouan, Lucien Haye, Maurice Radiguet, and Konrad-Wagner, and was produced under the editorship of André de Joncières.
Description
Large octavo, 16 pp. Original pictorial paper wrappers.
Illustrations
14 single-page and 1 double-page engraved illustrations, of which 7 are in colour, with captions.
Condition
Spine rubbed, sheets loose from gathering, contents lightly browned with a few small nicks to edges, overall a very good copy.
Bibliography
See Joel E. Vessels, Drawing France: French Comics and the Republic. Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2010.
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