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EXTREMELY RARE SATIRICAL DWARVES, WITH ALL 78 PLATES
[CARICATURES - DWARVES]. De Waereld vol Gekken Nesten anders genaamd Het Dwergen Tooneel of geschakelde samenspraak van des zelfs personagien. = Le Monde Plein de Fols, ou Le Theatre des Nains enrichi, d'un discours chêné de leurs personages.
Amsterdam, Wilhelm Engelbert Koning, "1720" [ca. 1720/30]. 4to (23.5 x 18 cm). 4 parts in 1 volume. With 76 engraved caricature plates (16 x 10.5 cm, 58 with 1 figure and 18 with 2 figures), and 2 engraved contents leaves (for parts 1 and 2), with the contents described in verse (2 lines for each plate). The title appears at the head of the contents for part 1. French red goatskin morocco (ca. 1860) by C. HARDY, gold-tooled turn-ins, marbled end-papers, headbands in green, white and brown, green ribbon marker, marbled and gilt edges.
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Extremely rare definitive edition (with 78 plates) of the famous satirical "Theatre of Dwarves," a wholly engraved book of caricatures of a wide variety of types of men and women: nobelman, intellectual, official, alchemist, doctor, soldier, pilgrim, milkmaid, etc., all depicted as grotesque dwarves. Dutchmen, Spaniards, Turks, blacks and jews all feel the barbs of the artist's pen and engraver's burin. Though inspired by Jacques Callot's 1622 Gobbi dwarf series, none appears to be directly based on an earlier model. Credit for the idea perhaps belongs to the publisher. The first 8 plates are in Dutch only, while the rest have captions and a few lines of verse in Dutch, German and French. The Dutch and French titles noted above are taken from the head of the contents for part 1 ("Rang en Register van De Waereld vol Gekken ..." and "Ordre et Liste de l'Oeuvre qui a pour titre Le Monde Plein de Fols ..."), plate 1 in part 1 bears the date 1720, and the volume numbers appear on the first plate in each volume. "Extremely rare" (Muller), "well-known, but rarely found complete" (Atlas van Stolk). The present quarto issue seems to be even rarer than the folio issue, which has decorative frames (printed from separate plates) around each print.
The first edition (Amsterdam, 1716) contained 50 numbered plates in 2 parts, each part with a contents leaf and giving the title in Italian & German (Il Callotto Resuscitato oder Neu eingerichtes Zwerchen Cabinet ), French and Dutch on plate 1. This edition was copied (with texts in German only) by the engraver Elias Baeck at Augsburg. Plates 1 to 8 of the Amsterdam edition were revised for use in Het Groote Tafereel der Dwaasheid, 1720 (hence their texts in Dutch only and the date 1720 in the first plate). Later that year or soon after, the 1716 edition was expanded by the addition of 5 plates (A-E) to part 1 and 3 plates (A-C) to part 2. Each plate in these two parts shows a single caricature figure. Part 3 with 12 plates, one for each month of the year, must have been added soon after and part 4 with 6 plates (numbered 1-6) soon after that, given the watermarks in the present copy. Plate 1 in part 4 notes a privilege not mentioned in the earlier parts. Each plate in parts 3 and 4 shows two caricature figures, mostly couples. At least most of the four Amsterdam editions were published in two issues, one in folio with decorative borders and one in 4to (or possibly sometimes even 8vo) without borders. Muller first knew only parts 1 to 3 (3695b), but later acquired a copy (in the 4to issue) with all 4 parts and described its part 4 in his supplement (3695d).
Among the lettered plates added to parts 1 and 2 and numbered plates in part 4, thirteen of the fourteen indicate the designer or draftsman, most with the monogram ICF or JCF, but in two (part 2, pls. B & C) the monogram is filled out as "J C Folkema," apparently meaning Jacob Folkema, while one plate (part 4, pl. 1) is signed "Isidor Cooridon Fidelle." Fidelle seems to be a pseudonym, however, and we suspect these were all by Folkema. Nearly all the plates indicate the engraver/etcher, namely Joost van Sasse, the Folkema family (Anna, Fopje and probably Jacob), P. van Buysen and his father Andries, J. van Kralinge, Isack Ledeboer and Jacob Keyser. The publisher is known from some maps from the years 1710 to 1713.
The paper in all four parts of our set is watermarked: large Strasbourg arms (fleur-de-lis on a crowned shield) above "4" & "WR" = "Beavuais," very close to Heawood 1820 (recorded in The Hague in 1729), so the four parts were no doubt printed together, probably in the 1720s. We have seen a copy of the folio issue with all four parts on this same paper, so the two issues were no doubt published simultaneously.
C. Hardy, active from at least ca. 1855, signed the binding on an end-leaf with a stamp in sans-serif capitals. A leading binder of his day and often mentioned with Bauzonnet, Lortic, Marius Michel, Charles Meunier, etc., he is now little-known. He is presumably related to Henri Hardy, apprenticed to Meunier, who came to the United States ca. 1895. The British Library binding database records several bindings by Hardy or Hardy-Mennil, but there are none in De Ricci or Beraldi. In England, no less a figure than Francis Bedford (1799-1883) explicitly imitated Hardy-Mennil. In very good condition, with minor tears repaired (only 1 slightly affecting the image and another slightly affecting a corner of the border). The binding is also very good, with some wear along the hinges and corners. An extremely rare and marvellous series of satirical dwarf caricatures, in its most complete edition.
