MANUSCRIT - UNIFORMS OF THE SPANISH ARMY - Notes... Lot 195

[MANUSCRIT - UNIFORMS OF THE SPANISH ARMY] - Notes and sketches on the uniforms of the Spanish army in 1878. S.l. [Paris], n.d., (1893), square folio, [4] ff. of text (false-title, title, introduction, table), and 38 plates of uniforms finely drawn and watercolored by hand, on drawing paper (30,5 x 23 cm), pasted on strong paper mounted on tabs, and each captioned by a handwritten sheet opposite, the whole in a large and very legible writing, half brown morocco with corners, spine with ribbons and flowered boxes, mosaic pieces bearing the colors of Spain and forming a flag at the head of the spine, double gilt fillet on the boards, gilt head (binding of the time). Very nice copy. Superb and exceptional album of uniforms, whose history can be reconstructed as follows: 1. At the beginning, taking advantage of the participation of Spain in the Universal Exhibition of 1878, the 2nd Office of the French General Staff, then directed by Colonel Vanson, wanted, with the consent of the interested parties, to take a copy of the uniforms of the corps present in the inter-army military detachment that accompanied the Spanish pavilion in Paris. This work was entrusted to Squadron Leader Lahalle, who signed the introduction to the collection (dated November 18, 1879). He took the sketches from life and wrote the captions, partly according to the regulatory documentation kept at the General Staff. The result was a unique copy, kept at the 2nd Staff Office. It reproduces 38 uniforms, distributed as follows: King's House (8 plates). - Infantry (9 plates). - Cavalry (11 plates). - Artillery (2 plates). - Engineers (4 plates). - Auxiliary corps (Guardia Civil and Carabinieros, 4 plates). 2. Then, in 1893, an apparently unique copy was made at the request of Captain Charles-Marie-Jacques-Octave Exelmans (1854-1935), grandson of the marshal, for his uncle, the famous collector Auguste Balsan (1836-1896). It is this copy that we present, with the ex-libris vignette of Balsan (number 478), engraved by Stern. Industrialist and politician, Auguste Balsan had attracted this not very nice notice of Jules Clère in his Biographie des députés (1875) : "His election was his beginning in the political life, a not very brilliant beginning, because M. Balsan seems to have had until now only one goal, which he has completely achieved, that of making people ignore his existence. 3. Presented, with the rest of the Balsan collection, at the public sale of 1910, the album was then retained by the heirs to be offered to the colonel Exelmans, former military attaché in Spain and Portugal from 1892 to 1898, the same one who had allowed the work of copying, as attested by a handwritten note pasted on the first guards, and dated Grand-Broutay (family residence of the Exelmans) on August 4th, 1910.