Description

ORIGINAL EDITION of the collection of 8 issues of theYmagier published from October 1894 to December 1896.

Created by Alfred Jarry and Rémy de Gourmont, these "images, miniatures, old and new prints, reprints of popular librettos, original works illustrated with drawings, woodcuts, lithographs, etchings, etc."They were printed on a hand-operated press at 9 rue de Varenne, in Gourmont's home.

Most of the texts were produced by the founders, who also practised illustration under the pseudonyms Alain Jans and Richard Gheym. Armand Seguin, Le Douanier Rousseau, Paul Gauguin, Maurice Delcour, Georges d'Espagnat, Émile Bernard, etc. also took part.

 "Alongside and below printed literature runs the oral river of tales, legends and folk songs.
There is also popular imagery, today synthesised in the Épinal factory, which flourished in thirty towns in the past, but especially in Troyes. This imagery, on loose sheets or pages of booklets, is known to archaeologists and a few amateurs: it is, first and foremost, our very subject, and all the rest, in the Ymagier, will only come as an extra, an ornament, a source, an object of study or comparison". (Rémy de Gourmont, n° I)

Number II, dated January 1895, includes thethe only lithograph produced by the Douanier Rousseau, The War, printed on orange paper.

A copy of the ordinary print run, sold for 3.50 francs per issue, which does not include the premiums reserved for subscribers or for deluxe editions.
As is often the case, some hors-texte plates and Epinal images are missing (see the collation).

RARE.

N°I - October 1894 - 67 pp + catalogue :
Texts : Gourmont, L'ymagier, The Fisherman's Mirror (I) - Jarry, The Passion (1st), Martyr's Head
Images: Gourmont, Martyr's head - Émile Bernard, Sainte Hélène
Missing images: Filiger, Virgin and Child and the two folded images.

N°II - January 1895 :
Texts : Jarry, Monsters - Gourmont, The Fisherman's Mirror (II)
Images: Forbes Robertson, Adam and Eve - Monsters, Gods, Riders - Henri Rousseau, The War (lithograph), Gourmont, The Annunciation - Jarry, Caesar Antichrist - Émile Bernard, Bedouin
Missing images: Seguin, Bretonnes - Two images from Epinal

N°III - April 1895 :
Texts : Jarry, The Virgin and Child - Gourmont, The Saints of Paradise
Images : Gauguin, La Madeleine - Espagnat, The Bishop -Émile Bernard, La Madone - Feugard, The Virgin and Child - Jossot, Jezuz ma Doue
Missing images: Delcourt, Étude - The epinal image

N°IV - July 1895 :
Texts : Alfred Jarry, The Passion: The Nails of the Lord - Gourmont, Legends: Saint Nicolas I, The Three Children
Images: Alain Jans (Jarry's pseudonym), Saint Gertrude - Espagnat, Fear - Richard O'Conor, Child's head - Emile Bernard, Saint Georg -  Richard Gheym (pseudo. de Gourmont) The Nativity
Missing images: Two images from Epinal

N°V - October 1895 :
Texts : Gourmont, Rutebeuf: The Miracle of Théophile - Gourmont, Monachus : Ludus Super iconia S. Nicolai
Images: Cranach, two engravings - Alain Jans (Jarry's pseudonym), Unpublished drawings, Frontispiece to Volume II - Image Populaire, Lhe real portrait of the Wandering Jew
Missing images: Clésinger, Bullfighting - Whistler, Lithography.

N°VI - January 1896 :
Texts : Gourmont, Popular songs
Images: Cranach, Costumes and portraits - Durer etc.., Nuremberg Chronicle - The Popes - Pages from old books - The Saints : Saint Christopher
Missing images: Deux images d'Épinal - Emile Bernard, Passion

N°VII - May 1896 :
Texts : Gourmont, Note on the Gourmont family
Images : Pages from old books - The Patience of Griseledits - Passion - The seven Trumpets to awaken the Fishermen - The Angel Gabriel (Émile Bernard) - Epinal image, Saint Peter and Saint Paul
Missing images: Noah's Ark - Epinal image, Napoleon on horseback

N°VIII - December 1896 :
Texts : Gourmont, Aucassin et Nicolette, Booklet
Images : Costumes and portraits -- Passion - Monsters - Espagnat, The Hanged Men- Popular image, La Bannière de Montaigu - cover of Volume II.