JACQUES Claude (ed.)MareMagnum
Album D'Ostende
001956Bruges and Ostende: J. Buffa. Half Morocco . Very Good. Cham Victor Eeckhout H. Borremans van Cuyck Gerlier F. Stroobant J. Van de Putte Baldisseroni de Nestele spellings of these names somewhat elastic. N.d. circa 1860. A fabulous collection of hand-colored plates of the popular Belgian beach resort with a mix of character studies mostly of the local non-fashionable citizenry humorous genre scenes and views of the beach the architecture the beachgoers the sea. 52 plates in all all but one of which is hand-colored the final plate is a folding tinted panorama of the beach looking in from the sea . Some of the beach scenes are evocative of Boudin. The mix of humor and more sober portraits lends a balance from which we can better approximate the culture and atmosphere at this early destination resort. And through the pictures we can sense the uneasy embrace of the vacationing bathers with the sea. The colored plates are all 13.5 by 10 inches or 34 by 25 cm including their margins. The plates are mostly clean but there is some finger soiling and the like in the margins and a few plates have chips and small chunks of card missing never affecting the images. Rebacked with attractive green morocco. The contemporary cloth boards are soiled with a few minor edge dings. No title and no evidence there ever was one. <br/><br/> J. Buffa unknown books
