Rare French Facsimile Printing of the Stone Declaration of Independence

Paris: Kaeppelin & Cie, 15 Quai Voltaire, (1840). Engraved folding broadside, by F(rédéric). Lepelle; bound as issued in Vie Correspondance et Ecrits de Washington publies d'apres l'edition americaine (Paris: Librairie de Charles Gosselin, 1840), 32 x 26 in. (813 x 660 mm); sheet unevenly toned; scattered spotting; single small wormhole appearing in multiple folds when unfolded; extremities worn, shallow tidemark along right edge, wear along both vertical edges. Bound, as issued, with an engraved frontispiece portrait of Washington and 21 additional plates. Contemporary quarter red morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, stamped in gilt, boards and extremities rubbed, spine ends worn; wormhole throughout all plates near lower gutter, other scattered wear, soiling, and dampstaining. Not in Bidwell; Sabin 101747

Rare French printing of the Declaration of Independence, based on the 1823 William J. Stone engraving. Produced for the inclusion in this 1840 atlas volume for the French adaptation of Jared Sparks’s The Life of George Washington and The Writings of George Washington.

Kaeppelin & Compagnie was active in Paris from the mid-1830s through the 1850s, although the Kaeppelin name was connected with the Paris printing trade throughout the century. The firm was at the forefront of French lithographic innovation, competing for prestige awards from the Société d’encouragement pour l’industrie nationale, including one for the development of a lithographic transfer process. The engraver, Frédéric Lepelle de Bois-Gallais, was for many years associated with the Archives Nationales in Paris. A paleographer and calligrapher, Lepelle was particularly noted for his facsimiles of historical letters and manuscripts.

Scarce in any instance, particularly so when still bound.