Beschreibung:

CHARLES MERME, ANTOINE ROUSSIN (1819-1894), AND ADOLPHE THÉODORE JULES MARTIAL POTÉMONT (1828-1883) CHARLES MERME AND ANTOINE ROUSSIN (artists) and LOUIS HÉRY (1808-1856) AND MARIUS GONTIER. Promenade à Salazie . Réunion: A. Roussin, 1851. Hand-coloured lithographic title and 11 hand-coloured lithographic plates (of 12, lacking no. 6) by and after Merme and Roussin. Lithographic text. (Title with a few short marginal tears.) ADOLPHE THÉODORE JULES MARTIAL POTÉMONT. Iles de la Réunion, Maurice & Madagascar. 18 Vues. Réunion: A. Roussin, [c.1852]. Hand-coloured lithographic title and 10 hand-coloured lithographic plates (of 18) by and after Potémont. (Light soiling, title with paper repair, one plate with margins trimmed.) Toussaint D1279. ANTOINE ROUSSIN. 3 hand-coloured lithographic plates by and after Roussin, comprising: 'Henry Hubert Delisle' [on india, mounted], 'Plan de Saint-Denis', and Proclamation de L'Empire à l'Ile de la Réunion le 20 Février 1853 . Réunion: A. Roussin, 1852-1854. (The first with bottom margin of mount repaired). 2 works and three plates bound together, 2° (426 x 291mm, et infra ). Contemporary roan-backed boards [?executed in Réunion or Mauritius, vide infra ], boards patterned with foliate scroll, stained card corners, spine gilt in compartments and titled 'ALBUM' in one (the volume disbound and the plates washed, resized and recoloured, rebacked preserving spine, spine detached, endpapers renewed). Provenance : Charles Murray Hay (1802-1864, 'Général Hay' stamped in gilt on upper board). AN ALBUM OF RARE HAND-COLOURED LITHOGRAPHS OF RéUNION, MAURITIUS AND MADAGASCAR, COMPILED FOR CHARLES MURRAY HAY (1802-1864), acting Governor of Mauritius. Hay first came to Mauritius in the 1830s as aide-de-camp to Governor Sir Charles Colville, and he returned in 1855 on the Bury St Edmunds to administer the island in Higginson's absence. The romantique style of the binding and the spelling of 'Général' on the upper boards confirm that the binding was executed by a French binder, and it seems most probably that the album was compiled for Hay in Réunion -- possibly by Roussin -- and then bound in that island or Mauritius. For Roussin and Potémont's work on Réunion, see Île de La Réunion, Regards croisés sur l'esclavage 1794-1848 , Paris and Saint-Denis de La Réunion, 1998.