Saturday, August 15, 2009

A gift from Paris!


Well, one of the huge advantages to having a father who is one of the premier antique book collectors in the world who also happens to own a small pied a terre in Paris AND who enjoys my love of things Napoleonic is that you get some wonderful gifts as he finds some amazing things in his time in book and print stores!

In the past he has brought back all sorts of goodies that now adorn my war room, including a wonderful book of prints and a print of Napoleonic French cavalry, a handkerchief produced by the French to teach their conscripts the intricacies of soldering life, and a fantastic print of Napoleonic French musicians and officers.

However, he may have outdone himself this time! In a small print shop in Paris (where even the bags are beautiful... check it out to the left) he found this collection of twenty-some-odd French Guard prints from approximately 1812. They are really delightful; beautifully colored, and the engravings are ever-so-sharp.

Anyway, any suggestions on how to frame them is very welcome! I was thinking of doing three or four per frame (which would give me about five frames worth.) Individually could be neat, but... and the greatest problem is that I am almost completely out of space in the wargames room! Not totally sure what I will do, but I'll come up with SOMETHING... maybe even individually framed and put around the kerchief?

7 comments:

Catweaseloz said...

what about mounting the prints in the back of the glass cabinets?

Bruno said...

Those are really wonderfull...
I too love old books and prints, even if I have very few.

I think framing each of them alone will be the best. even if you cannot put all of them in your room, store the other in a dark and dry space, and sometimes swap them.

When framing, I suppose you know that best is to put them behind a glass and to use acid free paper and materials for the back and boders of the framing.
They are authentic, so fragile, and light will be hard enough for them.
But, well I am sure you ever know that.

A wonderfull gift, really.

Would be nice to see a picture of each of them...

Congratulations,

Bruno.

Grégory Privat said...

Also they re now doing special glass that will protect them from the sun/UV or the like. More expensive, but this belong to history, not just to you, so you should do your best to preserve them. Or they can just stay as they are, protected as they ve been for so long.

Victor said...

Can your Dad adopt me?

Anonymous said...

Very impressive blog. I liked it.

ColCampbell50 said...

Beautiful prints!

As an archivist, I'll reiterate what Bruno and Gregory said - acid free backings, metal frames, UV resistant glass. Ensure they are not directly illuminated by fluorescent lights (source of UV) or direct sunlight. But if that's your only light source, then use UV filters on the lights.

If you'll contact me directly at jmcp1650 AT comcast DOT net, I'll try to put together some links for you with on-line research sites.

Jim

Author said...

Hey guys!

Thanks much for the advice... thankfully I have a bit of experience with this, and the room is pretty poorly lit (well, thankfully for the prints, not so much for my eyes...) However Jim, I might just send you a quick email about those links!

Thanks for coming by the blog!