Bindings - Norvins, Jacques de Montbreton de. Histoire de Napoléon. Onzième édition. 2 volumes. With numerous steel engraved plates and maps. Paris, Bureau des Publications illustrées, 1839. 2 pp., 535 p.; 2 pp., 528 p. 24.5 x 15.5 cm. Cream-colored leather bindings signed: "Noulhac rel. 1919" on five bands with gilt spine, triple gilt cover fillets, gilt standing and inner edge fillets, and four painted plates on the covers as well as four painted doublures on the boards signed: "Rollince 1919" and "J. Rollince del. 1919" on the inner covers. (Plates on the outer covers somewhat stained and with slight scratches, a few small losses in the leather of the frame, a few tiny bump marks on the standing edges). In this form probably a unique example of a "talking binding" ("reliure parlante"). - The book itself is not rare, the edition itself is less interesting and in the case of our copy was probably primarily used to give the binding design the theme of "Napoleon". It can probably be assumed that the two books were produced for a client or with a view to an exhibition, possibly for the "Salon de la Société des Artistes Français" of 1919 - The bindings were created in collaboration between the master Henri Noulhac (1866-1931) and Jeanne Dinet-Rollince (1865-1947), sister of the painter Étienne Dinet and his biographer, who used the pseudonym Rollince (anagrammatic for her married name Cornille) for her own works. - "Noulhac was a highly talented craftsman. He originally specialized in plain leather bindings (the so-called 'Jansenist bindings') and copies of Romantic bindings from the eighteenth century. ... Noulhac did not have the ambition to make a name for himself specifically as a book cover designer, which he later regretted." (Duncan/Bartha, Jugendstil und Art Déco Bucheinbände, Munich 1989, p.195; examples of his work: Figs. 190-193 of the standard work). - Noulhac worked for the most important collectors of his time, H. Béraldi was his main client. "In the 1920s, Noulhac developed into an excellent teacher; his students included Rose Adler and Madeleine Gras." (ibid.). - Jeanne Dinet-Rollince was not one of the master's students, but she had an affinity for art bookbinding. There is evidence of bindings created in collaboration with Léon Gruel using the "velin émaillée" technique that she developed and which is also used here, but only one volume at a time, and relatively less elaborately bound. She also created artistically designed table lamps in book form, which are highly prized today. However, her oeuvre as a whole was probably too small and stylistically too individual for her to become widely known; she cannot be attributed to any of the contemporary schools or trends in art and art bookbinding. - For the present volumes, she created a total of eight leaves in the technique of "velin émaillée", which she developed and probably used alone, all of which are unique; even the cover motifs, which at first glance appear identical. The doublures show stations from Napoleon's life in the round, surrounded by ornaments in the Empire style. Noulhac, the "highly gifted craftsman", perfectly framed the leaves in the borders; for the spine decoration he chose stamps with the motif of the bee, Napoleon's heraldic animal. - Text somewhat foxed, some narrow dampstaining from the head edge. VAT: *