Isla de Cuba Pintoresca. Frederic Mialhe, 1839-1842 MIALHE, Pierre Toussaint Frédéric (1810-1889). Isla de Cuba Pintoresca. Havana, Cuba: Mialhe, [1839-1842]. Rare album of 38 lithographs by Cuba’s master lithographer, “one of the most outstanding enterprises of its kind ever attempted in Cuba” (Cueto). "Havana in the early nineteenth century was a city of extraordinary wealth and culture. Although a Spanish colony, the elite of Cuba looked entirely to France for the luxuries. One aspect of this Francophile sophistication was a talented community of lithographers made up almost entirely of emigrant Parisian workmen. Mialhe, perhaps the foremost of these, produced a series of viewbooks of the island in a variety of formats after he moved there in 1836" (America Pictured to the Life). The lithographs in this series were scheduled to be issued in twelve installments of four prints each, but such an ambitious scheme could not be sustained and publication became intermittent after the ninth issue; according to Cueto, as many as 49 prints may exist, but every album is unique and some prints may have been issued separately; there was no title page. The present album, in a morocco gift binding, is the largest recorded at auction, and only one other copy of the work is recorded by RBH since the 1960s. The album also contains turn-of-the-century prints and travel photographs at the end, including seven early photographs of Tunisia signed “Albert” (possibly Paul Albert). America Pictured to the Life 16; Palau 121980; Cueto, Mialhe's Colonial Cuba, pp.1-3, 25-28. Oblong album (296 x 425mm). 38 lithographs by Mialhe mounted on brown paper sheets (spotting to some prints, some tears in margins repaired) and 18 further sheets with a variety of prints, drawings, and travel photographs mounted to them. Contemporary black morocco gilt stamped “Madame Lugeol” (worn).
Isla de Cuba Pintoresca. Frederic Mialhe, 1839-1842 MIALHE, Pierre Toussaint Frédéric (1810-1889). Isla de Cuba Pintoresca. Havana, Cuba: Mialhe, [1839-1842]. Rare album of 38 lithographs by Cuba’s master lithographer, “one of the most outstanding enterprises of its kind ever attempted in Cuba” (Cueto). "Havana in the early nineteenth century was a city of extraordinary wealth and culture. Although a Spanish colony, the elite of Cuba looked entirely to France for the luxuries. One aspect of this Francophile sophistication was a talented community of lithographers made up almost entirely of emigrant Parisian workmen. Mialhe, perhaps the foremost of these, produced a series of viewbooks of the island in a variety of formats after he moved there in 1836" (America Pictured to the Life). The lithographs in this series were scheduled to be issued in twelve installments of four prints each, but such an ambitious scheme could not be sustained and publication became intermittent after the ninth issue; according to Cueto, as many as 49 prints may exist, but every album is unique and some prints may have been issued separately; there was no title page. The present album, in a morocco gift binding, is the largest recorded at auction, and only one other copy of the work is recorded by RBH since the 1960s. The album also contains turn-of-the-century prints and travel photographs at the end, including seven early photographs of Tunisia signed “Albert” (possibly Paul Albert). America Pictured to the Life 16; Palau 121980; Cueto, Mialhe's Colonial Cuba, pp.1-3, 25-28. Oblong album (296 x 425mm). 38 lithographs by Mialhe mounted on brown paper sheets (spotting to some prints, some tears in margins repaired) and 18 further sheets with a variety of prints, drawings, and travel photographs mounted to them. Contemporary black morocco gilt stamped “Madame Lugeol” (worn).
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