Job - La Vieille Garde Impériale - 1902

The Old Imperial Guard fits into the great patriotic and Napoleonic current that marks the Third Republic, concerned with celebrating the “heroes of the nation” and the French military epic. The work is illustrated by Jacques Marie Gaston Onfroy de Bréville, known as Job (1858–1931), a draftsman specialized in military history and youth books, who then regularly collaborates with Mame on large grand-format historical albums. The text is collective, calling on several renowned writers of the era – notably Maurice Barrès (1862–1923), Henri Houssaye (1848–1911), François Coppée (1842–1908), but also Jean de Mitty, Henri Dalmeras and Jules Mazet – gathered around a lyrical exaltation of Napoleon I (1769–1821) and his elite guard.

The work, richly illustrated in black and in color, offers a true gallery of tableaux devoted to the former Imperial Guard, a prestigious formation of the Napoleonic army that includes grenadiers, chasseurs, sailors, dragoons, veterans, and artillery units on foot and mounted. The structure covers the major components of this elite corps: Napoleon in the army, the general colonels commanding the Guard, the infantry grenadiers, the Guard sailors, the dragoons, the artillery, and the Guard in the broad sense, with each chapter accompanied by action scenes and portraits in uniform. Job’s plates, with a high documentary precision on uniforms, equipment, and flags, help fix the popular iconography of the Imperial Guard and sustain the Napoleonic myth in the interwar years.

Grand octavo, 318 pp., [1] leaf, half-tawny basane with corners, spine ornamented with raised bands, gilt head.

Good overall condition, binding very slightly rubbed, some foxing and other minor defects.