Daumier, Grandville & Cham [ill.] / Jules Hélot [Syndicat des Fabricants de sucre de France] - ‎Histoire centennale du sucre de betterave - 1912

Original edition of this very rare commemorative album: because 1812 is not only the year of the disastrous Russian campaign but also the year of the imperial decree of January 24, 1812, which, following the first industrial extraction of sugar from beets by Jean-Baptiste Quéruel and Benjamin Delessert (late 1811), organized the first industrial production on the territory of metropolitan France, then completely cut off from its sugar colonies and British trade: one hundred students, selected from pharmacy, medicine, and chemistry students, will be attached to various newly established beet sugar factories; each student who has attended courses for more than three months and demonstrated perfect knowledge of the manufacturing processes will receive an indemnity of 1,000 francs. Furthermore, the Minister of the Interior will take measures to plant one hundred thousand metric acres of beets across the Empire; 500 licenses for beet sugar production will be granted throughout the Empire. Four imperial beet sugar factories will be established in 1812 to produce, from the 1812-1813 harvest, two million kilograms of raw sugar.

Sugar industry in Cambrai, Jules Hélot (1850-1924) was secretary of the Union of Sugar Manufacturers of France. He was responsible for the contributions in our volume, including one by his nephew, the doctor René Hélot (1875-1940): Sugar in Ancient Therapeutics.

One page in two is a reproduction of documents related to sugar, with about 20 plates reproduced in color. All the plates are protected by serpents, one of which is captioned. You will find caricatures by the greatest artists of the 19th century (Grandville, Honoré Daumier, Cham, etc.), maps, portraits, reproductions of photographs (exteriors and interiors of sugar factories in Douai, Cambrai, Meaux, Passy, Noyelles-sur-Escaut, etc., agricultural operations), posters by André Névil, sugar boxes, and sprinklers...

One of the most beautiful and best books on the subject, rare in its original edition (a facsimile was published by Editions Comédit in 1993).

Bound in red demi-percaline with corner protectors, dark green wax paper covers, reproduction of a beetroot framed with the dates 1812 - 1912 stamped in gold at the center of the upper cover (publisher's binding).

Condition: faded canvas, tears at the edges of the covers, worn corners, scuffs, weakened hinge (see photos). Interior in very good condition of freshness, some snakes slightly creased or folded, rare foxing. Good example.

[Beet Sugar] - Jules Hélot; Syndicate of Sugar Manufacturers of France.
Centennial history of beet sugar - Illustrated album of reproductions of documents from the collection of Mr. Jules Hélot. Published to commemorate the centenary of indigenous sugar production by the Syndicat des Fabricants de sucre de France.
P., Héliotypie Fortier et Marotte, 1912
1 volume in-folio oblong (30 x 41 cm); 179 pages.

Monumental history sugar beet centenary 1812 1912 Helot agri-food economy caricature humor Grandville Daumier Cham EO 1912 Infolio