This is an unusual find. These are pristine editions of a newspaper called ‘Le Constitutionel’, from the cataclysmic year of 1848, the year of the Third Revolution and the founding of France’s Second Republic. Le Constitutionel was founded in 1815, and ceased publication in 1914 (all of this is on Wikipedia but I am saving you the trouble!), and it was very much in favour of the restoration of a Bonaparte to be the head of a French State.
Politics aside, it also serially published a number of important works by Balzac, Dumas, Mérrimée and de Muset.
These broadsheets are utterly fascinating, reporting not only on the day’s most important political events, but also on mundane ordinary things that give a snapshot into life in the mid-19th century here in France. They show what was on at the various major theatres, the major train timetables, the emerging stock market and the fluctuating prices for the most important crops. The back page of many of them is full of advertisements for the most random things, cream to whiten your hands, a doctor who can treat sleepwalking, ways to recover money owed from Germany, advertisements for mineral water spas, people looking for work as ladies’ maids, and houses for sale.
These are also quite astonishing in terms of quality of paper and of printing. Unlike most of the newspapers from the latter part of the 19th century, this paper is not brittle and has yellowed only marginally. I am almost certain this is rag paper rather than wood pulp paper which came later and was far more acidic and therefore didn’t survive as well. These have been printed using the letterpress technique, in which metal letters would have been typeset in frames and then inked and rolled under pressure against the paper. This created a sort of embossed print which is truly beautiful, pressing the letters into the thick paper.
Im my search for houses to buy all around the Loire Valley and Richelieu I came across several of very old examples where newspapers like this had been used as wallpaper, which makes a stunning effect. You would need to research how to do this but it is entirely possible!
I am selling these individually. Each is a very large double-page broadsheet, printed on both sides, measuring roughly when opened out 68.5×101cm (they have been handcut so sometimes are uneven - they would have been printed by hand but in large quantities). Each one is different and I cannot make a selection but there are sequential dates.
Please note that these were folded in half and made to be read as a newspaper. Most of them look like they have been folded again. I can send single or smaller orders as print mail, but larger orders need to go as a parcel, in which case I can roll them into tubes in order to protect them.
To purchase, please message me and include the title of this listing and the number of broadsheets you would like. At the time of listing I have 31 examples.
This is an unusual find. These are pristine editions of a newspaper called ‘Le Constitutionel’, from the cataclysmic year of 1848, the year of the Third Revolution and the founding of France’s Second Republic. Le Constitutionel was founded in 1815, and ceased publication in 1914 (all of this is on Wikipedia but I am saving you the trouble!), and it was very much in favour of the restoration of a Bonaparte to be the head of a French State.
Politics aside, it also serially published a number of important works by Balzac, Dumas, Mérrimée and de Muset.
These broadsheets are utterly fascinating, reporting not only on the day’s most important political events, but also on mundane ordinary things that give a snapshot into life in the mid-19th century here in France. They show what was on at the various major theatres, the major train timetables, the emerging stock market and the fluctuating prices for the most important crops. The back page of many of them is full of advertisements for the most random things, cream to whiten your hands, a doctor who can treat sleepwalking, ways to recover money owed from Germany, advertisements for mineral water spas, people looking for work as ladies’ maids, and houses for sale.
These are also quite astonishing in terms of quality of paper and of printing. Unlike most of the newspapers from the latter part of the 19th century, this paper is not brittle and has yellowed only marginally. I am almost certain this is rag paper rather than wood pulp paper which came later and was far more acidic and therefore didn’t survive as well. These have been printed using the letterpress technique, in which metal letters would have been typeset in frames and then inked and rolled under pressure against the paper. This created a sort of embossed print which is truly beautiful, pressing the letters into the thick paper.
Im my search for houses to buy all around the Loire Valley and Richelieu I came across several of very old examples where newspapers like this had been used as wallpaper, which makes a stunning effect. You would need to research how to do this but it is entirely possible!
I am selling these individually. Each is a very large double-page broadsheet, printed on both sides, measuring roughly when opened out 68.5×101cm (they have been handcut so sometimes are uneven - they would have been printed by hand but in large quantities). Each one is different and I cannot make a selection but there are sequential dates.
Please note that these were folded in half and made to be read as a newspaper. Most of them look like they have been folded again. I can send single or smaller orders as print mail, but larger orders need to go as a parcel, in which case I can roll them into tubes in order to protect them.
To purchase, please message me and include the title of this listing and the number of broadsheets you would like. At the time of listing I have 31 examples.
