Explore the hidden history of the Albums Mecaniques, a rare series of nineteenth century French movable books with red silk covered tabs published by R. Schultz, J. Bonhoure, and A. Legrand

Reconstructing the Educational and Mechanical Origins of the Albums Mécaniques

Jo Tisinger

Among the most technically sophisticated movable books produced in nineteenth century France is a remarkable group of pull tab mechanical albums issued under the abbreviated imprint A. Legrand from 8, rue d'Assas in Paris. These works, now collectively known as the Albums Mecaniques, were later reproductions and reissues of earlier movable books originally published by the Paris firms R. Schultz and J. Bonhoure et Cie.

Using hidden paper sliders and mounted pull mechanisms to animate scenes behind each page, they rank among the most ingenious surviving examples of nineteenth century paper engineering. One of the most remarkable technical features of these beautiful movable books is their unusually sophisticated pull-tab mechanism. The card pull-tabs combine both silk and elastic construction: the lower portions of the tabs are sheathed in red silk fabric, while elasticated rubber bands — likely attached to the reverse of the movable plate itself rather than the upper backing paper — automatically return the tabs to their original position after release. The result is an animated mechanical action in which the figures spring smoothly back into place, demonstrating an unexpectedly advanced level of nineteenth-century paper engineering and mechanical design.

The German connection:

R. Schultz, first publisher of the Albums Mecaniques, officially represented Wilhelm Nitzschke in Paris. The sophisticated pull tab mechanics in Albums Mecaniques were likely invented by Friedrich Carl Hösch. It's also likely that while the plates in these beautiful French books were illustrated by AL in France, the movable book production was done in Germany.

A copy of Kinder Lust in lebendigen Bildern! in the Larry Seidman collection published in Stuttgart by Wilhelm Nitzschke [1863]. 32.5 x 25.8 cm. With 8 colored and bicolored plates featuring movable parts by Friedrich Carl Hösch, provides important evidence that sophisticated pull-tab mechanical systems employing silk tabs and elasticized movement mechanisms were already established within the German states by the early 1860s. Surviving examples retain red silk pull-tabs remarkably similar to those later associated with the French Albums Mécaniques. Nuremberg was one of the central industrial toy and paper novelty manufacturing centers in Europe. Hösch/Nitzschke were already producing elasticized silk pull-tab mechanical picture books there in 1863 (1863 is engraved in an illustration). Image from this book is pictured below. The art and text in these German books are not the same, indicating only the unique pull tabs were copied for Albums Mecaniques. This despite Nitzschke's warning on the book: “Mit gesetzlichem Schutz gegen Nachbildung” (Legally protected against imitation). R. Schultz encountered these systems directly through his working relationship with Wilhelm Nitzschke. This discovery strongly suggests that the technological foundations for the later Albums Mécaniques were already present within German mechanical picture-book production earlier. it is also interesting that T. Al Chammas, citing Pressler (1980, p. 117), identifies F. C. Hösch’s Kinder Lust in lebendigen Bildern (Stuttgart: Nitzschke, 1863) as one of the earliest Ziehbilderbücher (‘pull-tab picture books’) in Germany. Nitzschke also published a second one in this format titled Heitere Abziehbilder für Kinder.

Heitere Ziehbilder. Invented and drawn by F. C. Hösch. With explanatory text by Franz Strässle. 1 Thaler 67 Kreuzer:





R. Schultz, first publisher of the Albums Mecaniques, officially represented Wilhelm Nitzschke in Paris. Catalogue général de la librairie française, vol. 15 (Paris, 1864), 794. lists the Stuttgart publisher Wilhelm (“Guillaume”) Nitzschke together with his official Paris representative: “Guillaume Nitzschke, libraire éditeur à Stuttgart. Représentant à Paris, R. Schultz, 25 Rue royale St. Honoré.” (translates to publisher-bookseller in Stuttgart. Representative in Paris: R. Schultz, 25 Rue Royale Saint-Honoré.”)
On the same page under the Schultz heading appears F. C. Hösch’s mechanical books Kinderlust in lebendigen Bildern, described as containing “8 finely colored movable pictures” (“8 fein colorirte bewegliche Bilder”), and Heitere Ziehbilder (“Cheerful Pull-Pictures”). This provides direct documentary evidence linking R. Schultz to the Paris representation and distribution network of the very publisher issuing Hösch’s sophisticated movable books.

Both images are form From Catalogue général de la librairie française, vol. 15 (Paris, 1864), page 794




This leads one to wonder whether, considering the technical sophistication of these elasticized silk pull-tab mechanisms in the 1860s, a specialized workshop may have been required to produce them. The surviving examples from both the German Hösch/Nitzschke productions and the later French Albums Mécaniques employ unusually refined concealed pull systems that appear far more complex than the simpler paper-tab mechanisms commonly found in later nineteenth century movable books.It is therefore possible that some of the later French mechanical books discussed here may even have been manufactured, assembled, or engineered within German-speaking production networks, particularly since many nineteenth century French movable books were printed or manufactured in Germany. While no direct documentary evidence has yet been discovered linking the French and Spanish Albums Mécaniques to a specific German workshop, the similarities in construction raise intriguing questions regarding shared manufacturing traditions, transferred technical knowledge, or specialized novelty-production ateliers. The fact that the book says “Erfunden von F. C. Hösch, Nürnberg” (“Invented by F. C. Hösch, Nuremberg”) suggests that Hösch was being credited not merely as illustrator, but as the originator or deviser of the concept behind the work. In the context of a highly unusual mechanical picture book employing elasticized silk pull-tab systems, the wording strongly implies that the inventive mechanical or interactive nature of the book itself formed part of Hösch’s claim to originality. The mechanical systems in Kinder Lust in lebendigen Bildern were likely connected to Nürnberg workshop production culture associated with Hösch’s Kunstanstalt,a large nineteenth century Bilddruckerei and lithographic art establishment operating within one of Europe’s principal centers for toy and paper novelty manufacture.

The early French Albums Mécaniques themselves credit “color lithographs by Auguste André Lancon” and printing by Lemercier, placing their artistic and lithographic production firmly within the Parisian publishing world. However, this does not necessarily exclude the possibility that the specialized pull-tab engineering or assembly work may have originated elsewhere. During the nineteenth century, it was common for French publishers to outsource portions of novelty-book production, particularly mechanical assembly and specialized paper engineering, to German workshops with expertise in toy and paper novelty manufacture. In this context, the discovery of the Hösch/Nitzschke mechanical books becomes especially intriguing. The mechanical systems in Albums Mécaniques were likely connected to Nürnberg workshop production culture associated with Hösch’s Kunstanstalt who advertsied themselves as an “Erdgloben- und Spielwaarenfabrikant” (globe and toy manufacturer) specializing in difficult, sophisticated work. At the same time an 1867 trade notice stated, “Brandstetter, Friedrich, publisher-bookseller, Leipzig. Representatives: Haar & Steinert, 9 Rue Jacob. Friedrich Klincksieck, 11 Rue de Lille. R. Schultz, 25 Rue Royale Saint-Honoré,” So we know that that R. Schultz acted as a Paris representative, distributor, or commercial contact for at least one German publishing firm. This places Schultz directly within the transnational German-French publishing trade.

In 1865 a German book trade bibliography advertised the title Gewerbe, die, in lebenden Bildern (“Trades/Industries in Living Pictures”) as a large quarto work containing “8 colored lithographic plates with text,” and listed it as “Paris: Schultz.” In nineteenth century German bibliographic usage, “Paris: Schultz” indicates the work was published, sold, or issued under the Schultz imprint in Paris.

An advertisement in Leipziger Zeitung, 1865, p. 460, praised the Kinder-Lust in lebendigen Bildern technology. stating," through the use of rubber bands, so-called ‘living picture books’ for youth have become known in recent years. They naturally contain only the feature that one or more figures within a picture change their position by pulling and then spring back again when one releases the pull. Two such picture books, one titled Heitere Ziehbilder for Children and accompanied by explanatory text, the other Kinder-Lust in lebendigen Bildern with matching rhymes, have been published by Wilhelm Nitzschke in Stuttgart and are distinguished by their excellent presentation, charming depiction of childlike scenes and graceful execution in drawings and coloring, as well as by a durable manufacture such as is seldom achieved in books of this kind."

Albums Mécaniques

The books discussed herein by the French publishers, contained captions in four languages — French, English, German, and Spanish — a feature that greatly facilitated international distribution.

the Albums Mécaniques were not isolated novelty productions floating randomly between publishers. They were passing through a Protestant educational publishing ecosystem already deeply invested in children’s instructional literature, evangelical juvenile reading, illustrated pedagogy, and multilingual educational publishing.

The publishing history of the Albums Mécaniques appears to reveal a remarkably complex evolution involving inherited lithographic stones, reused mechanical components, shifting publishers, and multiple Parisian chromolithographic workshops. What initially appears to be a simple series of movable children’s books instead emerges as a layered production network passing successively through the hands of Rudolf Schultz, J. Bonhoure, and eventually A. Legrand. Evidence from surviving albums suggests that Legrand did not simply create entirely new works, but inherited, reused, supplemented, and reconfigured earlier production materials while gradually expanding the series through newly commissioned artists and lithographers. The resulting history reflects not a single unified atelier, but a collaborative Parisian ecosystem of illustrators, printers, mechanical assemblers, and chromolithographic firms working within the rapidly evolving world of nineteenth century paper novelties and movable books. The fascinating details of this complicated progression are explored below.

NOTE: At present, the only fully digitized and publicly accessible examples from this specific Schultz–Bonhoure–Legrand movable-book tradition appear to be the 1882 A. Legrand Album Amusant pour les Enfants Sages: tableaux vivants preserved by the Bibliotheque nationale de France, and Scènes Émouvantes et Paisibles preserved in the collections of the Bibliotheques specialisees de la Ville de Paris. Nevertheless, as you will see reading below, period publisher advertisements, trade catalogues, auction records, and surviving examples in private collections demonstrate that the series originally included additional animated and movable titles issued by Schultz, Bonhoure, and Legrand, most of which have not yet been digitized or made publicly accessible online.

Known Movable and Animated Titles from the Schultz–Bonhoure–Legrand Tradition from Contemporary Nineteenth Century Publisher Advertisements:

(Note: Les Folies enfantines, Tableaux vivants by R. Schultz is the earliest presently documented title in the entire Albums Mécaniques tradition)

Image from Bibliographie de la France (1864), 1258. Another ad from Bibliographie de la France, ou Journal général de l’imprimerie et de la librairie (1864), 1258. explains: "This type of work, entirely new in France, is greatly superior to anything that has been produced up to the present abroad. Not only are the illustrations executed and colored with the greatest care, but the mechanism, which faithfully reproduces natural movements, leaves nothing to be desired."

R. Schultz Advertisements

(The original animated albums in French were first conceived and advertised during the 25 rue Royale-Saint-Honoré period in 1864–1866. Then, after Schultz relocated the business to 204 rue de Rivoli on August 1, 1869, the earlier albums appear to have continued being printed, reissued, or redistributed using the same lithographic plates, mechanical structures, and artistic material, now bearing the newer 204 rue de Rivoli imprint. The Spanish-language editions appear to belong to this later expansion phase associated with the Rivoli move, during which the same movable-book concepts were adapted for international export markets through the continued reuse of existing plates and production materials.)

Les Folies enfantines, Tableaux vivants. R. Schultz, Librairie Française & Étrangère, 25 rue Royale Saint-Honoré, Paris, circa 1864. French-language edition. Animated movable album. Referred to retrospectively in a Schultz advertisement from Bibliographie de la France (1865) as an earlier successful publication “publié par nous l’an dernier,” meaning “published by us last year.” Price recorded as 7 fr. 50, with a net trade price of 5 fr. 50. The album was described as containing animated tableaux (“tableaux vivants”). The eight scenes listed in the advertisement were: “La Berceonnette,” “La Balançoire,” “Le petit Postillon,” “Les petits Musiciens,” “Les petits Soldats,” “Le petit Maître d’école,” “La Souris prise,” and “L’Écureuil échappé de sa cage.” Published at 25 Rue Royale-Saint-Honore. This title appears to represent the earliest documented publications within the Albums Mécaniques tradition.

Les Métiers en Action. R. Schultz, Librairie Française & Étrangère, 25 rue Royale Saint-Honoré, Paris, 1865. French-language edition. Animated album containing eight colored movable scenes. The advertisement describes the album as containing “huit magnifiques sujets coloriés” and specifically credits “M. A. Lançon” with creating “des tableaux animés des mouvements si naturels,” animated tableaux of remarkably natural movement. The eight scenes listed in the advertisement were: “Le Jardinier,” “Le Tailleur de pierre,” “Le Boucher,” “Le Barbier,” “Le Cordonnier,” “Le Menuisier,” “Le Boulanger,” and “Le Maréchal-Ferrant.” Quarto volume, elegantly board bound. Price recorded as 7 fr. 50. The advertisement states that the success of the earlier Les Folies enfantines encouraged Schultz to issue this new animated album. This is one of the earliest known advertisements securely linking A. Lançon with the Schultz movable-book productions.

Escenas Patéticas y Apacibles. R. Schultz, Libraire-Éditeur, 204 rue de Rivoli, Paris, circa 1869. Spanish-language edition. 8 movable plates. Described in Schultz advertisements as “ocho nuevos cuadros con vida” and elsewhere as scenes “con movimiento,” meaning eight new animated scenes with movement. The advertisements further explain that the figures could move and represented various scenes of life. Quarto album, richly board bound. Price recorded as 7 fr. 50. Individual plate titles are presently unknown. This title was later continued in Spanish by J. Bonhoure y Cía. under the identical title Escenas Patéticas y Apacibles.

Juanito Estudioso (“Studious Little Juan”). R. Schultz, 204 rue de Rivoli, Paris, circa 1869. Spanish-language edition. 8 movable plates. Described in the Schultz wrapper advertisement as “8 láminas nuevas con vida que dan movimiento a la aldea,” meaning eight new animated plates bringing movement to village scenes. The album appears to have depicted animated rural or village subjects. Individual plate titles are presently unknown. Issued as part of Schultz’s early instructive and recreational movable-book series. No direct Bonhoure equivalent has yet been securely identified.

Los Oficios en Acción. R. Schultz, Libraire-Éditeur, 204 rue de Rivoli, Paris, circa 1869. Spanish-language edition. 8 movable plates. Animated occupational scenes described in advertisements as “ocho cuadros iluminados con movimiento” and elsewhere as “8 láminas con circulación animada,” meaning illuminated scenes with animated movement or circulation. The scenes represented various trades and occupations. Individual plate titles are presently unknown. Quarto album, board bound. Price recorded as 7 fr. 50. This occupational movable series was also advertised by Schultz as Los Oficios en Movimiento and was later continued by J. Bonhoure y Cía. under related Spanish and French titles.

J. Bonhoure et Cie / J. Bonhoure y Cía. Advertisements (The ads indicate that French and Spanish editions were published at the same time)

Escenas Patéticas y Apacibles. J. Bonhoure y Cía., 48 rue de Lille, Paris, 1877. Spanish-language edition. 8 movable plates. Bonhoure continuation of the earlier Schultz movable series. Described as “8 nuevos cuadros con vida, cuyas figuras pueden moverse y representan varias escenas de la vida,” meaning eight new animated scenes whose figures can move and represent various scenes of life. Individual plate titles are presently unknown. Quarto album, richly bound. Price recorded as 9 fr. This title directly corresponds to the later French title Scènes émouvantes et paisibles, advertised by Bonhoure as one of the firm’s “Grands Albums coloriés pour les enfants,” each containing “8 tableaux vivants, coloriés” animated by “un mécanisme ingénieux” placing the scenes in motion. The French advertisements further explain that each tableau was accompanied by pages of explanatory text and legends in multiple languages.

Nouvelles folies enfantines. J. Bonhoure y Cía., 48 rue de Lille, Paris, 1876. French-language edition. 8 movable plates. Animated juvenile scenes advertised as part of Bonhoure’s “Grands Albums coloriés pour les enfants.” The advertisement specifies that the album contained “8 tableaux vivants, coloriés,” operated through “un mécanisme ingénieux” causing the scenes to move. Each tableau was accompanied by explanatory text and legends in several languages. Price recorded as 8 fr. This title corresponds closely to the Spanish-language Nuevas Travesuras Infantiles and later became one of the central French titles continued by A. Legrand.

Nuevas Travesuras Infantiles (New Childhood Mischiefs). J. Bonhoure y Cía., Paris, 1877. Spanish-language edition. 8 movable plates. Animated juvenile scenes described as “8 nuevos cuadros, cuyas figuras pueden moverse y representan varias escenas de la vida de los niños,” meaning eight new animated scenes whose figures can move and represent scenes from the lives of children. Individual plate titles are presently unknown. Quarto album, richly bound. Price recorded as 9 fr. This title appears to represent the Spanish-language counterpart of Bonhoure’s French title Nouvelles folies enfantines.

Les Métiers en action. J. Bonhoure y Cía., 48 rue de Lille, Paris,1874. French-language edition. 8 movable plates. Animated occupational scenes advertised among Bonhoure’s “Grands Albums coloriés pour les enfants.” The advertisement describes the album as containing “8 tableaux vivants, coloriés” animated through “un mécanisme ingénieux” placing the scenes in motion. Each tableau was accompanied by explanatory text and legends in multiple languages. Price recorded as 8 fr. This title directly corresponds to the earlier Spanish-language occupational series Los Oficios en Acción and Los Oficios en Movimiento and later continued under A. Legrand.

Los Oficios en Movimiento (Trades in Motion). J. Bonhoure y Cía., Paris, 1877. Spanish-language edition. 8 movable plates. Animated occupational scenes described as “8 cuadros iluminados con vida, cuyas figuras todas pueden moverse y representan varios oficios,” meaning eight illuminated animated scenes whose figures can all move and represent various trades. Individual plate titles are presently unknown. Quarto album, richly bound. Price recorded as 9 fr. This title directly corresponds to the French Les Métiers en action. Schultz himself had already advertised Los Oficios en Movimiento by 1869, demonstrating that the title was already in circulation before the Bonhoure advertisements.

Scènes émouvantes et paisibles. J. Bonhoure y Cía., 48 rue de Lille, Paris, circa 1874. French-language edition. 8 movable plates. Animated scenic tableaux advertised as part of Bonhoure’s “Grands Albums coloriés pour les enfants.” The advertisement specifies that the album contained “8 tableaux vivants, coloriés” animated by “un mécanisme ingénieux” that placed the scenes in movement. Each tableau was accompanied by explanatory text and legends in several languages. The individual scenes listed in an 1875 ad were : “Chasse sur les toits,” “Un combat,” “Cache-cache,” “Jeu de paume,” “La rivière aux crocodiles,” “Chasse au lion,” “Chasse au tigre,” and “Saltimbanques.” (translated) as: Rooftop Chase --- A Fight — Hide-and-seek — Game of tennis — The river with crocodiles — Lion hunt — Tiger hunt — Tightrope performers. Price recorded as 8 fr. This title corresponds directly to the Spanish-language Escenas Patéticas y Apacibles and was later continued under A. Legrand.

A. Legrand Advertisements and Bibliothèque Nationale References

A late nineteenth century Bibliothèque Nationale catalog compiled by Henri Bouchot helps establish the chronology of the Legrand mechanical series, documenting titles between 1881 and 1884. Dates here are also confirmed by the legal deposit stamp (“Daté d'après le cachet du dépôt légal”) on the books housed at the BnF. Under the French system of dépôt légal (“legal deposit”), publishers were required to submit copies of their books to the government, where the deposited copies often received official dated stamps used today for bibliographical dating. These stamps were generally applied only to the publisher’s deposited institutional copies sent to the government, national library, or designated repository rather than to ordinary retail trade copies.

Les Nouveaux Jeux de l’Enfance (The New Games of Childhood). A. Legrand, Paris, [1881]. French. 12 animated and colored scenes. Advertisement states the scenes are: Jeu de Croquet, Jeu de Tambourin, La Chasse aux Papillons, Le Colin-Maillard, La Force du Poignet, La Danseuse de Corde, Le Bâtonnet, Jeu de Quilles, Jeu d’Adresse, Jeu d’Arc, La Grande Corde, and La Balançoire. One particularly important observation is that Les Nouveaux Jeux de l’Enfance differs from the other known Legrand albums by containing twelve animated subjects rather than six. The twelve subjects, however, were arranged on six movable pull-tab plates, with each plate incorporating two animated scenes. While priced the same as the other albums and not necessarily mechanically larger, Les Nouveaux Jeux de l’Enfance was nevertheless clearly marketed as the showcase production of the series. No earlier Schultz or Bonhoure equivalent has yet been securely identified.

Album Amusant pour les Enfants Sages: tableaux vivants (Amusing Album for Well-Behaved Children: Living Pictures). A. Legrand, Paris, [1882]. French. 6 animated and colored scenes operated by pull tabs. Advertisement states the scenes are: La Pêche, La Voiture aux Chèvres, L’Enfant au Berceau, Un Combat, Chasse au Lion, and La Main-Chaude et le Saute-Moutons. Surviving copies demonstrate that Legrand combined reused earlier Lemercier lithographic plates with newer Roche lithographs by Bernard Coudert. The album appears to represent a hybrid production assembled from both older and newly commissioned material.

Les Animaux Industrieux (The Industrious Animals). A. Legrand, Paris, [1880]. French. 6 animated and colored scenes. Advertisement states the scenes are: Les Sapeurs-Pompiers par les Singes, Les Facteurs sur des Vélocipèdes, L’Éléphant, Les Petits Bûcherons, L’Horlogerie, and La Moisson. Large quarto album with illustrated cover. No earlier Schultz or Bonhoure equivalent has yet been identified.

Nouvelles Folies Enfantines (New Childhood Follies). A. Legrand, Paris, [1880]. French. 6 animated and colored scenes. Advertisement states the scenes are: La Balançoire et la Raquette, Les Enfants à l’École, La Musique au Village, Les Dénicheurs d’Oiseaux, Le Chien et le Rat, and Nos Petits Soldats. This title appears to represent the French continuation or adaptation of the earlier Bonhoure Spanish movable title Nuevas Travesuras Infantiles.

Scènes Émouvantes et Paisibles (Emotional and Peaceful Scenes). A. Legrand, Paris, [1880]. French. 6 animated and colored scenes. Advertisement states the scenes are: Chasse sur les Toits, Cache-Cache, Jeu de Paume, La Rivière aux Crocodiles, Chasse au Tigre, and Saltimbanques. This title represents the French continuation and reorganization of the earlier Schultz title Escenas Patéticas y Apacibles and the later Bonhoure continuation published under the same Spanish title.

La Joie des Enfants (The Joy of Children). A. Legrand, Paris, [1884?]. French. 6 animated and colored scenes. Advertisement describes the album as presenting numerous amusing and instructive animated scenes for children, though the individual scene titles are presently unknown. No earlier Schultz or Bonhoure equivalent has yet been identified. A copy housed by the Pop-App museum copy bears the the signature “B. Coudert” and imprint Grandjean & Gascard in Paris.

This book can be seen via the Fondazione Tancredi di Barolo MUSLI Pop-App Museum YouTube channel here https://youtu.be/kvO5Tp5buM0?si=QBfQ2jazZ5cYMKZx

Les Métiers en Action (Trades in Action). A. Legrand, Paris, [1880]. French. 8 animated and colored scenes issued in two separate albums. Advertisement states the scenes are: Le Tailleur de Pierres, Le Cordonnier, Le Boucher, Le Boulanger, Le Menuisier, Le Maréchal Ferrant, Le Barbier, and Le Jardinier. This title clearly represents the French continuation, reorganization, and expansion of the earlier Spanish occupational movable titles Los Oficios en Acción published by Schultz and Los Oficios en Movimiento published by Bonhoure. ICover art - A. Lançon.

Les Merveilles de la Science et de l’Industrie (The Wonders of Science and Industry). A. Legrand, Paris, [1884]. French. 6 animated and colored scenes. Advertisement states the scenes are: Imprimerie, Brochage, Découpage, Blanchissage, Boussole et Télégraphe, and Tondeur et Matelassière. The album demonstrates Legrand’s continued emphasis on educational and technical instruction through animated mechanical scenes. No earlier Schultz or Bonhoure equivalent has yet been identified.

A.Legrand Spanish editions? Auction evidence from Antiquariat Peter Kiefer’s Auktion 92 (Catalog Number 1679) identifies a Spanish-language A. Legrand, Escenas Pateticas y Apacibles. Additionally, A contemporary advertisement published in Le Petit journal des enfants on 12 December 1880 stating “VIENT DE PARAITRE” (Just Published) promoted several Albums Mécaniques issued by A. Legrand, including Les Animaux Industrioux, Nouvelles Folies Enfantines, Les Métiers en action, and Scènes Émouvantes et Paisibles. The notice explicitly stated: “Chacun de ces albums se vend, avec texte espagnol, 9 fr.” (“Each of these albums is sold with Spanish text, 9 francs”),
Gallica Source

The Earlier Schultz–Bonhoure Movable Books

These books appeared under Schultz as early as 1865. This ad (translated form French to English here) from 1865 states: “The success achieved by the album of the same kind published by us last year under the title Les Folies enfantines, Tableaux vivants (price: 7 fr. 50 c., and 5 fr. 50, 13/12 assorted with M. Métiers en action), has encouraged us to publish this year a new album. M. A. Lançon, with his distinguished talent, has provided us with animated tableaux of natural movements which we expect will receive an even more favorable reception than that accorded to their predecessors, this album having the double advantage of amusing children and instructing them.”

Current research shows that R. Schultz was the earlier publisher associated with the series and that J. Bonhoure et Cie later continued or took over the movable albums. This sequence is supported by surviving copies in which both the Schultz and Bonhoure names appear together on the same editions. Titles later issued under the Legrand imprint correspond directly to earlier Bonhoure publications, including albums that survive in confirmed movable states. . The later Legrand issues, however, were often reorganized and shortened, with movable scenes reduced in number, individual tableaux rearranged between volumes, and certain compositions adapted or simplified from the earlier Schultz–Bonhoure versions.

For example, a direct comparison between the earlier Schultz–Bonhoure Los Oficios en Movimiento and the later A. Legrand Les Métiers en Action shows that six of the eight movable tableaux from the earlier Bonhoure edition were retained and recombined within the later Legrand version. This observation is particularly significant because the earlier Bonhoure albums generally contained eight movable scenes, while many surviving Legrand reproductions appear reduced to six, reinforcing the conclusion that Legrand reorganized and republished earlier Bonhoure material rather than creating entirely new mechanical books.

Bibliographie de la France, ou Journal général de l’imprimerie et de la librairie. Paris: Cercle de la Librairie, 1877, p. 2117. It notes noting: “Les mêmes en espagnol,” ( The same in Spanish.) confirming simultaneous Spanish-language editions.




We found a Spanish language Bonhoure ad published in Bibliographie de la France in 1877 under the heading Libros iluminados para la ninez, or Illustrated Books for Children, issued by J. Bonhoure y Cia, 48, rue de Lille, Paris.

Image: Several titles listed here by Bonhoure are explicitly described as movable books. Los Oficios en movimiento, or Trades in Motion, is advertised as containing figuras pueden moverse, meaning figures can move. Other titles, including Escenas pateticas y apacibles and Nuevas travesuras infantiles, are similarly described as albums whose movable figures represent various scenes of life. This advertisement provides direct contemporary documentary evidence that Bonhoure itself was publishing movable books before the later Legrand reproductions appeared.

Image: Spanish editions From Bibliographie de la France [anciennement de l’Empire français]. Paris: Cercle de la Librairie, 1877, 732.

We also have the back cover of a Schultz illustrated childrens book - Cuento de las Aventuras de Tomasillo el Pulgarcito. Paris: R. Schultz, Librero-Editor, 204 Rue de Rivoli. [ca. 1869]. One especially important detail appears at the bottom of the Schultz advertisement: “Other similar mechanical works are in preparation.” The wrapper also organizes titles into numbered first, second, and third series with the movables being in the first series. The known movable include Escenas Patéticas y Apacibles, Los Oficios en Acción / Los Oficios en Movimiento, and Juanito Estudioso, all explicitly described as containing figures or scenes that ‘move’ (‘figuras pueden moverse,’ ‘dan movimiento,’ or ‘circulación animada’). The advertisements further describe the publications collectively as ‘mecánicas obras’ (‘mechanical works’), so it is possible that there may have been another one listed that was movable.

What is interesting about the ad above is the translated line: “Other similar mechanical works are in preparation.” It suggests the Legrand/Schultz mechanical album program was intended to be larger than the currently known surviving titles. It is possible that some still-unknown event disrupted the original Schultz Albums Mécaniques operation during the early 1880s. One plausible explanation is the death, retirement, or withdrawal of “R. Schultz” himself, after which the Schultz family or successors may have transferred the mechanical publishing program to Bonhoure. This theory aligns closely with the documented transition of the Schultz premises and publishing activity into Bonhoure’s hands around 1872. Rather than creating an entirely new series, Bonhoure may initially have done little more than continue issuing already-existing Schultz mechanical albums using inherited chromolithographic stones, mechanisms, and production materials. The evidence increasingly supports this interpretation: the Legrand and Bonhoure editions preserve multilingual captions, reused plate imagery, identical animated mechanisms, recurring artist signatures as well as the same lithographic production networks associated with Lemercier. In several cases, the later editions appear less like newly conceived works than direct continuations or reissues of an established Schultz mechanical tradition. The advertisements themselves suggest continuity rather than reinvention. Particularly significant is the appearance of both publisher names together on certain Bonhoure copies, strongly suggesting a transitional publishing phase rather than a wholly independent production.

Quick Schultz Bio:

R. Schultz — identified in contemporary German sources as Rudolf Schultz — later became associated with the Strasbourg printing and publishing firm R. Schultz & Cie., successor to Berger-Levrault after 1873. Earlier research had suggested the name “Robert Schultz” based on later archival finding aids and secondary references, including records from the Archives départementales de Meurthe-et-Moselle referring to “Robert Schultz (1873)” in connection with the Imprimerie strasbourgeoise. However, multiple contemporary nineteenth century trade directories and publishing sources explicitly identify the proprietor of R. Schultz & Cie. as Rudolf Schultz. One trade directory entry describing the firm as “Berger-Levrault’s successor” names “Rudolf Schultz” directly as owner and representative of the company, while additional Strasbourg publishing records likewise refer to the “Druckerei Rudolf Schultz und Co.” and “Verlagsbuchhandlung Rudolf Schultz.” Although some archival inconsistencies remain regarding the expansion of the initial “R.,” the surviving contemporary evidence now strongly favors Rudolf Schultz as the correct historical identification. Therefore surviving documentation contains occasional inconsistencies regarding the expansion of the initial ‘R.,’ a common problem in nineteenth-century trade records

Image; Archives départementales de Meurthe-et-Moselle, Fonds Berger-Levrault, 57 J 282, ‘Négociations avec l’Imprimerie strasbourgeoise Schultz et Cie,’ referencing Robert Schultz (1873).

Recent research has also revealed that Schultz was connected to a far larger Franco German printing and publishing network than previously recognized. A German trade directory published in 1871 identified “R. Schultz” at 25 rue Royale Saint-Honoré in Paris under the title “Librairie Française et Étrangère” (“French and Foreign Bookshop”) and classified the business simultaneously as a publisher, bookseller, commission bookseller, and antiquarian bookseller (“Verleger, Sortimenter, Commissions- und Antiquarhandlung”). The same entry recorded that the firm had been founded on 1 November 1859 and noted that Schultz distributed circulars, prospectuses, placards, and Protestant publications.² This evidence demonstrates that the Schultz enterprise already operated as an international and multilingual publishing concern well before its later association with the Albums Mecaniques.

Further evidence of the international character of the Schultz enterprise appeared in 1869, when Bibliographie de la France recorded the transfer of the business from 25 rue Royale-Saint-Honoré to the prestigious arcades of 204 rue de Rivoli under the name “Librairie française et étrangère de R. Schultz.” The phrase “French and Foreign Bookshop” is significant because it reflects the multilingual and international orientation of the Schultz publishing network during the same period in which the movable books were produced.

Bibliographie de la France 1869, p. 792.recorded that the Librairie française et étrangère de R. Schultz relocated from 25 rue Royale-Saint-Honoré to 204 rue de Rivoli effective 1 August 1869.

Located beneath the celebrated arcades running alongside the Tuileries Gardens and the Louvre, 204 rue de Rivoli formed part of one of the most fashionable and commercially important retail corridors in nineteenth-century Paris. A libraire-éditeur at this address occupied a highly visible storefront facing one of the busiest promenades in the city, positioning Schultz within the world of illustrated gift books, luxury children’s publications, travel albums, and cosmopolitan print culture rather than exclusively within specialized educational publishing circles. The address placed the Schultz enterprise within the visual heart of imperial Paris itself — a setting associated with affluent consumers, elegant commercial display, and the expanding international market for richly illustrated books.

The location’s later association with Camille Pissarro, whose famous Tuileries paintings were executed from the same address in 1899, further underscores the exceptional visual and commercial prominence already associated with the Rivoli site during the Albums Mécaniques period. The importance of the address became even greater after September 1872, when Paris trade notices recorded that J. Bonhoure replaced Schultz at the same location, establishing a direct documented succession between the two publishing operations.

By the early 1870s, Rudolf Schultz had expanded far beyond the world of Paris bookselling. Trade notices published in the Börsenblatt für den deutschen Buchhandel in 1873 reported that the major Strasbourg printing and publishing operations of Berger-Levrault — including its bookshop, printing works, and lithographic establishment — had passed to “Schultz & Co.” following the postwar reorganization of the firm. Later German, French, and English references repeatedly identified “R. Schultz & Co.” as the successor to Berger-Levrault in Strasbourg, while English printing journals described the company as “R. Schultz & Co. (formerly Berger-Levrault) at Strasburg.”

This dramatically changes the scale of the Schultz enterprise. The publisher associated with the Albums Mécaniques was no longer simply a Paris bookseller operating from Rue de Rivoli, but the head of a major industrial printing and lithographic operation in Strasbourg. The transition linked the Schultz network directly to one of the most important printing establishments in the region, combining Paris bookselling and export distribution with large-scale Strasbourg chromolithography, multilingual publishing, and educational printing.

Schultz, the Strasbourg successor firm now operated on a striking industrial scale. Contemporary printing histories described an establishment employing twenty-two steam presses, eighteen hand presses, and approximately 250 workers — transforming Schultz from a Paris bookseller into the head of one of the major printing operations in the region..⁶ The firm produced medical dissertations, government documents, educational works, multilingual primers, lithographic publications, and scholarly texts, demonstrating that the Schultz enterprise extended far beyond a small Paris bookshop into a major Franco German printing and publishing network. This evidence is especially important for understanding the technical and logistical infrastructure behind the multilingual chromolithographic productions associated with the Albums Mecaniques and related illustrated publications.⁷

The 1885 bicentennial commemorative pamphlet Zur Erinnerung an das 200jährige Jubiläum der Buchdruckerei des Hauses R. Schultz & Cie. in Strassburg i/E., den 26. September 1885 was issued “als Manuscript,” indicating a privately circulated rather than commercially published work. The quarto volume comprised 35 pages and was produced in celebration of the firm’s 200th anniversary. Although the publication does not appear to have been digitized, bibliographic references suggest that it likely contained historical information concerning the firm, its printing operations, and possibly Rudolf Schultz himself, making it an important surviving primary source for future research.⁸

The commemorative volume reveals that the Strasbourg printing company acquired by R. Schultz & Cie. traced its history back to 1685. The volume also appears closely associated with Louis Mohr, the noted bibliographer and longtime general manager associated first with the former Berger-Levrault printing house and later with its successor firm, R. Schultz & Co.⁹

Image from: Kaiserliche Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek in Strassburg, Katalog der elsass-lothringischen Abteilung, Vol. 2 (Strassburg, 1929), 550

Schultz editions:

Two closely related Spanish-language Schultz editions of Escenas Patéticas y Apacibles [ca. 1869] are presently known. The first copy, bound in red cloth, bears the cover imprint: “R. Schultz, Rue de Rivoli, 204, Paris,” while a second surviving copy, bound in brown cloth, translates the address fully into Spanish and reads: “R. Schultz, Librero Editor, Calle de Rivoli, 204, Paris.” Despite these slight bibliographical differences in the cover paper, both have 8 plates, and in all respects are the same. Most importantly, the first red-cloth example carries the combined imprint: “J. Bonhoure y Cia, Paris; R. Schultz, Paris,” with Bonhoure credited as publisher on the title page and Schultz appearing on the illustrated cover paper. This dual attribution provides important bibliographical evidence that the two firms were directly connected during the early history of the Albums Mécaniques series and suggests either a collaborative publishing arrangement or a transitional transfer phase between the Schultz and Bonhoure editions. Likely when Bonhoure later acquired the publishing operation, inventory, and plates, the existing Schultz printed covers or wrappers were still being used, while Bonhoure inserted new title pages or publishing identifications.

Along the lower margin of the decorative cover, partially legible beneath the lion’s tail, appears the printer’s line: “Imp. Lemercier et Cie, Paris.” Rose-Joseph Lemercier’s establishment at 57 rue de Seine was the leading chromolithographic printing house in Paris from the 1840s through the 1880s and was responsible for some of the most technically sophisticated colour printing in nineteenth-century French publishing. The evidence shows that the Albums Mécaniques were lithographed, printed, and mechanically assembled within a fully Parisian production environment, even while circulating through broader international educational and multilingual publishing networks. The third image is the later LeGrand edition. The Legrand version includes only 6 scenes compared to the other two Schultz editions shown. The 6 Scenes in the Legrand version are exact duplicates of the Schultz ones.

Lemercier’s firm was especially renowned for technical innovation in chromolithography and photolithography. More information about the lithographer is available at the end of this article.

The Spanish-language edition of this book shown above, Escenas patéticas y apacibles, was explicitly advertised by R. Schultz in the Börsenblatt für den deutschen Buchhandel (Leipzig, 1869) page 3466, where Schultz announced the publication of “reich colorirten Jugendschriften in spanischer Sprache” (“richly coloured juvenile books in the Spanish language”)



Translation:
R. Schultz

204 Rue de Rivoli, Paris

Paris, 15 October 1869.

“The following richly coloured juvenile books in the Spanish language have just appeared from my publishing house.

Since I have honorable commercial connections, partly on the spot and partly through relations with America, for the distribution of works of this kind within Spanish-language literature, and since new publications in this field are enjoying growing demand, I take this opportunity to draw attention to the following list. At the same time, however, I must note that I cannot accept anything other than cash orders.

I grant free delivery to Paris, a 30% discount, and terms of 13/2.

Respectfully,

R. Schultz.”

Then the book: Escenas patéticas y apacibles. “Eight new animated scenes. Quarto album, richly board-bound. 7 francs 50 centimes.”

Bibliographie de la France. Paris, 1869, 1018.

Publisher’s advertisement issued by R. Schultz, libraire-éditeur, 204 rue de Rivoli, Paris, listing a coordinated series of Spanish-language juvenile publications under the heading Libros Iluminados para la Niñez. The notice includes at least two of the mechanically animated titles Escenas Patéticas y Apacibles and Los Oficios en Acción, both explicitly described as containing “ocho cuadros iluminados con movimiento” (“eight illuminated scenes with movement”)

Numerous evangelical works distributed through “SCHULTZ, rue de Rivoli, 204” include Protestant histories, sermons, devotional literature, translations of John Bunyan, religious biographies, and pastoral writings.The Fifty-First Annual Report of the Religious Tract Society. London: Religious Tract Society, 1878, 30. References the distribution of French Protestant tracts, Scripture portions, and almanac sheets published at “204, Rue de Rivoli, Paris,” providing evidence that the address associated with R. Schultz also functioned within international evangelical and religious publishing networks during the same period as the Albums Mécaniques. This discovery aligns strikingly with the now-established Protestant orientation of J. Bonhoure and suggests that Schultz operated not merely within luxury illustrated publishing, but also within international Protestant bookselling and evangelical distribution networks active in Paris during the same decades as the Albums Mécaniques.


Enter Bonhoure:

Advertisements for these mechanical albums under the name “J. Bonhoure” appear as early as 1874, demonstrating that the Bonhoure publishing house had already assumed active control of the series only a few years after the earlier Schultz advertisements of the early 1870s. This transition strongly suggests continuity rather than the creation of an entirely new enterprise. The surviving evidence increasingly indicates that Bonhoure inherited or absorbed the existing Schultz mechanical album operation, including at least part of its lithographic material, multilingual publishing strategy, and international commercial distribution network, before the series later evolved further under A. Legrand.

The figure behind the imprint “J. Bonhoure” can now be identified with high probability as Jules Bonhoure (1839–1889), a French Protestant pastor, missionary, educator, publicist, and publisher associated with the long-running Bonhoure publishing house at 48 Rue de Lille in Paris. Bonhoure emerged from the Protestant Cévennes intellectual tradition centered around Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort in the Gard and appears to have operated within the same broader evangelical educational and multilingual publishing world already associated with Schultz and the earlier Librairie Française et Étrangère network.

Archival missionary records document Jules Bonhoure as one of the Protestant missionaries selected in 1859 to establish a mission in China alongside Oscar Rau of Lausanne. Following his return to France during the early 1860s, Bonhoure became increasingly active in Protestant educational and literary publishing in Paris. Trade records, dépôt légal notices, subscription advertisements, and evangelical periodicals throughout the 1870s consistently associate “J. Bonhoure et Cie.” with multilingual educational publishing, chromolithographic juvenile books, missionary literature, evangelical journals, and international Protestant distribution networks extending across Europe and beyond.

The movable and animated albums therefore appear not as isolated novelty productions, but as part of a much broader nineteenth century educational publishing environment devoted to visual pedagogy, multilingual instruction, moral education, and illustrated juvenile entertainment. Bonhoure himself frequently promoted these books as combining “instruction with amusement,” reflecting the same pedagogical philosophy visible throughout contemporary Protestant educational publishing.

Particularly important is a Paris trade notice dated 11 September 1872 stating that “BONHOURE (J.), 204 rue de Rivoli … remplace le sieur Schultz,” establishing a direct documented succession between the Schultz and Bonhoure operations at the very same address printed on many of the earlier albums. This evidence strongly suggests that what passed from Schultz to Bonhoure was not simply a retail premises, but an already functioning illustrated educational publishing enterprise centered around chromolithographic juvenile books, multilingual editions, and mechanically animated albums.

The coexistence of Schultz and Bonhoure imprints on surviving copies therefore no longer appears contradictory, but instead reflects a transitional continuity within the same evolving publishing operation. Bonhoure likely inherited, continued, distributed, or reorganized substantial portions of the earlier Schultz visual publishing program while integrating the albums into his own broader Protestant educational enterprise.

By the late 1870s the movable albums increasingly formed only one branch within Bonhoure’s much larger publishing network devoted to educational, evangelical, literary, and juvenile works. During the early 1880s the mechanical album division itself appears gradually to have separated from the broader Bonhoure enterprise and passed into the hands of A. Legrand, who transformed the productions into a more specialized commercial mechanical-album program.

A far more detailed reconstruction of Jules Bonhoure, the Bonhoure publishing house, the Protestant educational network surrounding the Albums Mécaniques, and the documentary evidence identifying “J. Bonhoure” appears in Appendix 1A.

Bonhoure took over the Rue de Rivoli address and publishing operation formerly associated with R. Schultz in September 1872.

Image form Journal général de l'imprimerie et de la librairie, vol. 16. Paris, 1872, 468.



By 1874, advertisements in Bibliographie de la France announced that Bonhoure would soon relocate the business from 204 rue de Rivoli to 48 rue de Lille.

The continuity between the Schultz and Bonhoure enterprises becomes especially visible in Bonhoure’s other publications issued from 204 rue de Rivoli. Works such as Les Récréations Instructives promoted illustrated educational entertainment centered on animals, trades, agriculture, industry, and science — themes closely paralleling the pedagogical and visual objectives already present in the earlier Albums Animés and Les Métiers en Action.

Advertised in Louis Ruffet’s Lambert d'Avignon: le réformateur de la Hesse (1873):

Tentative Timeline for Schultz, Bonhoure, Legrand and the Albums Mécaniques Tradition

1859
A later German trade directory recorded that the Librairie Française et Étrangère associated with R. Schultz had been founded on 1 November 1859. The business specialized in French, German, and English publications and operated within broader international and Protestant publishing networks.

1863
An announcement published by E. Borel & Cie. revealed that “M. R. Schultz” served as gérant avec procuration (manager with power of attorney) for the Librairie Française et Étrangère. The notice announced the transfer of the business from 33 rue de la Chaussée d’Antin to 25 rue Royale-Saint-Honoré and emphasized Schultz’s established foreign commercial relationships supplying French, German, and English publications.

1863 Hösch in Germany creates “Ziehbilder” and “bewegliche Bilder” for Nitzschke in Stuttgart that have the same red silk elastic pull abs as the future French volumes. Nitzschke is officially represented in Paris by R. Schulz.

Circa 1864
R. Schultz published Les Folies enfantines, Tableaux vivants from 25 rue Royale-Saint-Honoré, Paris. Retrospective advertisements from 1865 identify the work as having been published “l’an dernier” (“the previous year”), making it the earliest presently documented title within the Albums Mécaniques tradition.

1865
Schultz advertised Les Métiers en Action, an animated movable album illustrated by “M. A. Lançon.” The advertisement described eight colored animated scenes and emphasized the remarkably natural movement of the figures. This is one of the earliest known advertisements securely linking A. Lançon to the Schultz movable productions.

1865–1866
Multiple French-language advertisements confirm that Schultz was independently issuing animated juvenile albums under the imprint Librairie Française & Étrangère at 25 rue Royale-Saint-Honoré. The movable-book tradition therefore clearly originated in French before later expanding into multilingual export editions.

1866
The address 204 rue de Rivoli already appears in international exhibition and commercial correspondence connected with the Paris Exposition and broader cosmopolitan trade culture, demonstrating the prestige and commercial visibility of the location before Schultz’s occupancy.

1 August 1869
A notice in Bibliographie de la France: Annonces records that the “Librairie française et étrangère de R. Schultz” relocated from 25 rue Royale-Saint-Honoré to 204 rue de Rivoli.

October 1869
R. Schultz advertised new richly colored Spanish-language juvenile books in the Börsenblatt für den deutschen Buchhandel (Leipzig), including the movable titles Escenas Patéticas y Apacibles and Los Oficios en Acción. This marks the earliest presently known export-oriented Spanish phase of the Albums Mécaniques tradition.

1869–1872
Multiple advertisements and publications place R. Schultz, libraire-éditeur, at 204 rue de Rivoli. These include Protestant works, educational publications, multilingual juvenile books, chromolithographic albums, and mechanically animated illustrated works associated with the Albums Mécaniques tradition.

Circa 1870
Schultz published additional chromolithographic juvenile albums from 204 rue de Rivoli, including Aventures de Sancho Pança pendant son gouvernement sur l’Ile Barataria, demonstrating Schultz’s continued involvement in sophisticated illustrated children’s publishing during the Rivoli period.

11 September 1872
A Paris trade notice published in the Journal général de l'imprimerie et de la librairie records: “BONHOURE (J.), 204, rue de Rivoli … remplace le sieur Schultz (Ernest),” establishing a direct documented succession between the Schultz and Bonhoure operations at the same address.

1872–1874
Bonhoure continued operating from 204 rue de Rivoli while developing an increasingly elaborate educational and visual publishing program centered around visual pedagogy, chromolithographic albums, and animated juvenile publications.

August 1873
Archival and scholarly records connected with the Strasbourg printing industry identify “Rudolf Schultz” with the takeover of the former Berger-Levrault printing establishment in Strasbourg, including its premises, machinery, and personnel.

1874 - Bonhoure moves from 204, rue de Rivoli to , 48, rue de Lille, Paris.

1874–1877
Bonhoure increasingly integrated the movable albums into a broader educational publishing program associated with “Méthode d’enseignement par l’aspect,” “La Science par le Jeu,” chromolithographic instruction, and Protestant pedagogical publishing.

1874–1877
French and Spanish Bonhoure advertisements confirm simultaneous multilingual publication of the movable albums, including Scènes émouvantes et paisibles, Les Métiers en action, Escenas Patéticas y Apacibles, and Los Oficios en Movimiento. The advertisements explicitly describe the albums as animated through “un mécanisme ingénieux” and note that explanatory legends accompanied the scenes in multiple languages.

1877
By this date Bonhoure was operating from 48 rue de Lille, where the publishing house functioned within the broader Paris Baptist evangelical and educational milieu. The movable albums continued to be advertised from this address.

1881–1884
A. Legrand began republishing the earlier movable albums in revised and reorganized form from 8 rue d’Assas, Paris. The Legrand editions frequently reduced the earlier eight-scene Bonhoure format to six scenes while reusing inherited Lemercier plates alongside newly commissioned lithographs by Roche and other Paris workshops.

Later A. Legrand Editions - A. Legrand, éditeur, 8, rue d'Assas, Paris

While not presently pictured or digitized except for Legrand's Album Amusant pour les Enfants Sages, the Bibliothèque nationale de France catalog records at least five different titles from the Legrand mechanical series. The entries are mistakenly attributed, however, to the earlier and apparently unrelated author and movable book producer Augustin-Claude-Simon Legrand (1765–1856), who was himself associated with earlier educational movable works. The publisher of these late nineteenth century mechanical albums, issued decades after the death of Augustin-Claude-Simon Legrand, was Auguste Legrand.

One especially unusual and important title within the Legrand mechanical album series is Les Nouveaux Jeux de l’Enfance (“The New Games of Childhood”). Unlike the other known Legrand animated albums, which were generally advertised as containing six animated tableaux, this title was promoted as containing “douze sujets animés coloriés” (“twelve colored animated subjects”). At first glance, this appears to make it the largest and most ambitious production in the series. However, the Bibliothèque nationale de France catalog clarifies the apparent discrepancy by describing the album as containing six movable pull-tab plates (“6 planches”) each incorporating two animated scenes. The album therefore seems to have contained six mechanical boards presenting a total of twelve individual animated subjects rather than twelve separate movable plates.

Scènes Émouvantes et Paisibles by A. Legrand, shown here as well as above, is an exact duplicate of the Schultz Spanish editions also illustrated above, except that it contains six scenes rather than eight. All scenes were printed by Lemercier. The cover also bears the embedded initials “A.L.” A digitized copy can be seen at the Bibliotheques specialisees de la Ville de Paris. Bibliotheques specialisees de la Ville de Paris digital copy

Source: Bibliotheques specialisees de la Ville de Paris digital collections.


Legrand also appears in other books to have mixed and matched Schultz and Bonhoure scenes with newly introduced examples executed by a different artist and lithographer.

Image: Album Amusant pour les Enfants Sages: tableaux vivants. Paris: A. Legrand, 1882. Lithographed partly by Roche and partly by Lemercier. Bibliotheque nationale de France, Departement Estampes et photographie, 4 KA 3 C. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons. The two plates shown look different because they were made at different moments by different hands.

The six scenic tableaux in this Legrand album were printed by at least two separate lithographic firms: “Imp. Lemercier & Cie, Paris” on two plates and “Lith. Roche, 1 rue Le Regrattier, Paris” on the remaining four. The two Lemercier scenes are exact matches of earlier Schultz-period plates, demonstrating that Legrand reused inherited material from the earlier mechanical series. The four Roche plates are newly commissioned scenes signed by Bernard Coudert, who also designed the revised Legrand cover compositions. Another Legrand mechanical title, La Joie des Enfants, likewise illustrated by Coudert, bears the imprint “Grandjean & Gascard, Paris,” introducing yet another chromolithographic workshop into the production history of the Albums Mécaniques. Together these discoveries reveal that Legrand’s later albums were assembled through a collaborative network of inherited plates, newly commissioned lithographs, and multiple Parisian printing workshops rather than produced entirely within a single unified atelier. The more complex production history behind this evolving system is examined later in this article.

The multilingual captions within each book are especially important because they survive across all production states. That continuity suggests the export-oriented international concept was already embedded in the earlier Schultz–Bonhoure editions and was intentionally retained by Legrand. The two Lemercier scenes shown below and previously used in an earlier Schultz-associated edition are “Un Combat” and “Chasse au Lion.”

Image: Scenes from the 1882 Legrand edition of Album Amusant pour les Enfants Sages: Tableaux Vivants, published by A. Legrand, 8 rue d’Assas, Paris (Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Estampes et photographie, 4-KA-3 (C). Album Amusant pour les Enfants Sages: tableaux vivants. Paris: A. Legrand, 1882.)

About the artist : Bernard Coudert was the complete visual author of this Legrand edition, responsible for both the cover design and all four of the newly commissioned Roche-printed interior tableau plates, each bearing his signature. Coudert was a Parisian commercial illustrator and lithographic draughtsman who became one of the most prolific artists in the French children's games trade during the second half of the nineteenth century.. He was a parisian illustrator and lithographic draftsman associated with the production of juvenile amusements, games, military scenes, and chromolithographic novelties.He was the principal illustrator for Léon Saussine before 1890, and the Roche workshop was Saussine's printer. Game historians consistently state that Coudert's signature appears on over 250 lithographic game sheets produced between approximately 1854 and 1890.

The imprint "Lith. Roche, 1, rue Le Regrattier, Paris" — the form it takes in the 1882 Legrand album, elsewhere appearing as "Imp. Roche Paris" — identifies a specialised lithographic workshop situated on the Île Saint-Louis in the fourth arrondissement. Surviving bibliographic records link Roche to the printing of illustrated amusements, games, military scenes, alphabets, and juvenile novelties for publishers such as Saussine and Legrand.Roche's specialization in toys and paper ephemera, and its role as the print house of choice for the French games trade, is verified across multiple surviving objects. Where the large industrial houses of the period, such as Lemercier & Cie at 57 rue de Seine, handled high-volume contracts across fine art, commercial advertising, and book illustration for a broad clientele, Roche operated a tighter, more specialised practice centered on the precision colour registration and paper-stock requirements of the toy and game trade. The closing date of the Roche workshop has not been firmly established, but the imprint does not appear on objects dated after the mid-1880s, suggesting the firm's active period for this class of work ended at approximately that point.

Note: As pictured above and below, the illustrated plates of Les Métiers en Action bear the embedded signature “A. Lançon,” strongly suggesting the involvement of the French illustrator and printmaker Auguste-André Lançon (1836–1885). This attribution is supported by multiple converging lines of evidence. Lançon consistently signed his illustrated work “A. Lançon” throughout the 1860s–1880s, and the form of the signature visible on the mechanical plates closely matches that used in his documented published illustrations. He became particularly known for scenes depicting artisans, laborers, tradespeople, and urban working life — precisely the thematic focus of Les Métiers en Action, whose animated tableaux portray bakers, barbers, blacksmiths, carpenters, gardeners, cobblers, and other occupational scenes rendered with lively observational detail.

The attribution is strengthened further by Lançon’s documented relationship with the major Paris lithographic house Lemercier. Museum records from the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes explicitly identify works as “LANÇON Auguste-André … LEMERCIER, imprimeur … lithographie en couleurs,” directly linking Lançon to color lithographic production at the Lemercier establishment. Additional market records describe proofs pulled “après effacement de l'adresse de Lemercier” (“after removal of the Lemercier address from the stone”), confirming that Lançon’s lithographic stones physically circulated through the Lemercier workshop at 57 rue de Seine. This connection is especially significant because contemporary trade records in the Journal général de l'imprimerie et de la librairie identify “Schultz. Paris, Impr. lith. Lemercier,” directly linking the Lemercier establishment to the printing of the Albums Mécaniques series itself. The same workshop therefore appears at the center of both relationships: printing Lançon’s chromolithographic work while simultaneously producing the Schultz animated albums later continued by Legrand.

Who Was A. Legrand?

His name was Auguste Legrand (1848- ?). His publishing business was located at 8 Rue d'Assas, Paris. This evidence identifying the publisher address survives in records preserved in the Bibliographie de la France. A declaration published in the “Chronique” section on 29 March 1879 lists: “LEGRAND (Auguste), 8, rue d’Assas, à Paris.”¹

This brief but highly significant notice is the first known documentary record clearly linking the mysterious “A. Legrand” of the Albums Mécaniques to a real individual: Auguste Legrand, operating directly from the exact Paris address printed on the mechanical albums themselves.

This LeGrand has been especially confusing because the Legrand name already occupied an important place in early French juvenile publishing through the earlier publisher, engraver, and illustrator Augustin-Claude-Simon Legrand (1765–1856). Modern scholarship discussing this earlier figure appears most notably in Jacques Desse’s important study, “Augustin Legrand, un pionnier inconnu du livre jeunesse,” published in Strenae in 2016. In that article, Desse documented the significance of the first Legrand within the history of French children’s books and also identified the existence of a second “A. Legrand” operating later from 8, rue d’Assas in Paris. Yet even Desse ultimately concluded that this later publisher remained largely mysterious and that little beyond the Albums Mécaniques themselves was known about him. But again, that article was in 2016, it is now 2026 and more information has become available.

Evidence from the Catalogue général de la librairie française reveals that Auguste Legrand was far more than a commercial publisher of novelty books. He taught English at major Paris secondary schools including the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and later the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly, translated educational works from English, and edited school editions of Shakespeare and other classroom texts. One surviving bilingual edition of Jules César identifies him as an “agrégé d’anglais,” one of the highest academic teaching qualifications in nineteenth-century France.

This educational background fundamentally changes how the Albums Mécaniques should be understood. The same individual producing advanced bilingual classroom editions was also publishing interactive pull-tab albums for children under the imprint “A. Legrand, Éditeur, 8 rue d’Assas, Paris.”

Additional evidence from the Annuaire de l’instruction publique et des beaux-arts places “Legrand (A.)” at the École normale d’enseignement secondaire spécial at Cluny (Saône-et-Loire) during the late 1870s and early 1880s. Significantly, he was associated not with language teaching, but with “dessin d’imitation,” a form of instructional drawing connected with visual training and practical educational methods. The institution itself emphasized mechanics, graphical instruction, workshops, and technical education, placing Legrand within a professional environment deeply invested in visual pedagogy and mechanical demonstration.

The educational culture behind the Albums Mécaniques begins earlier with Bonhoure and is best understood as a continuity of visual educational publishing rather than as two separate movable-book traditions. Bonhoure itself appears deeply rooted in educational publishing. Publications such as Méthode d’enseignement par l’aspect (“Method of Instruction Through Visual Observation”) and La Science par le Jeu (“Science Through Play”) emphasized learning through pictures, observation, visual demonstration, and interactive educational methods rather than text alone.

In nineteenth-century educational publishing, such “games” often included teaching cards, movable diagrams, layered visual systems, and interactive albums. Combined with the confirmed movable Bonhoure books, this terminology suggests that the firm viewed animated imagery as part of educational instruction rather than mere amusement. Bonhoure also specialized in prize-distribution books for schools, one of the largest nineteenth-century markets for illustrated juvenile publishing.

The address of J. Bonhoure et Cie is equally revealing. The firm’s headquarters at 48 rue de Lille was not merely a commercial bookshop, but formed part of the newly established Église Évangélique Baptiste de Paris, inaugurated in September 1873 with support from American and British Baptist missionary organizations. Contemporary accounts referred not only to the chapel itself, but also to the printers, publishers, and evangelical educational activities installed within the complex. This shows that J. Bonhoure et Cie functioned not simply as an independent commercial publisher, but as a bookseller, distributor, and educational publishing operation closely tied to the Paris Baptist community itself.

Although J. Bonhoure et Cie remains far less documented than many major nineteenth century French publishers, the surviving evidence now reveals a far more substantial and internationally connected educational publishing enterprise than previously recognized. He was part of an international co-publishing system linking Paris to Switzerland and the German states. Multiple library catalogues now confirm that Bonhoure jointly issued these works with J. F. Schreiber of Esslingen near Stuttgart, one of the most important nineteenth century European publishers of movable and pop-up books. This connection is especially significant because Schreiber specialized in layered chromolithographic tableau books and pull-down scenic formats closely related to the mechanical principles later seen in the Albums Mécaniques.

Bonhoure was operating not merely as a local Paris publisher, but as part of a sophisticated Franco Swiss German educational publishing network that combined Protestant pedagogy, chromolithographic visual instruction, multilingual distribution, and mechanical illustration. Bonhoure simultaneously collaborated with publishers in Neuchâtel, Lausanne, and Esslingen while producing educational atlases, Protestant instructional works, and interactive children's albums.

The snippet below from the Catalogue des ouvrages et documents composant la bibliothèque de la ville de Rouen, vol. 2. Rouen, 1886, 218. is important because it directly confirms the same educational work appearing under both the Paris imprint of J. Bonhoure et Cie and the Esslingen imprint of J. F. Schreiber. The German edition, Naturgeschichte der Säugethiere, is listed under Schreiber at Esslingen, while the French adaptation, Atlas d’histoire naturelle. Mammifères, appears under J. Bonhoure et Cie in Paris. Schreiber produced the original German educational atlas while Bonhoure issued the French translated and adapted edition for the French market. The key phrase is:“Translation du précédent” (“Translation of the preceding work”).

The Fabrique d Albums Mecaniques - One of the most revealing discoveries appears in Journal general de l imprimerie et de la librairie in 1886, which advertises A. Legrand, editeur, 8, rue d Assas, Paris, followed by Fabrique d albums mecaniques pour enfants. This wording is highly significant. Rather than describing a conventional literary publishing house, the advertisement explicitly presents Legrand as the operator of a factory or production workshop devoted to mechanical albums for children.

The 1882 advertisement below by A. L. lists several familiar movable titles, including Les Animaux industrieux, Nouvelles folies enfantines, Scenes emouvantes et paisibles, and Les Metiers en action. It explains that these publications are provided with an ingenious mechanism that puts the scenes into motion. Also note: Les sujets … sont choisis de manière à joindre l’amusement à l’instruction ( The subjects … are chosen in such a way as to unite amusement with instruction). The following ad image after this one shows that A - L is Legrand.

An former mystery involves the recurring initials “A.L.” appearing on the cover artwork across multiple editions of the Albums Mécaniques tradition.

Because the publisher is already separately identified within the imprint, the initials most likely refer to an illustrator, designer, or creative figure associated with the albums rather than to the publisher himself. The later appearance of “A.-L...” in Legrand advertisements for the same Albums Mécaniques tradition is therefore especially intriguing. There were theories put forth that the artist was LEMERCIER (Alfred-Léon) or even A. Legrand himself.

The actual artist however is named in the 1865 R. Schultz ad above as M. A Lancon. The ad stated: M. A. Lançon, with his distinguished talent, has provided us with animated tableaux of natural movements.: A. Lancon's name also appeared as A. Lancon rather than simply AL in later editions of this tradition. Note that in French, the "M.” before A. lancon simply means “Monsieur"

A. Lançon appears to have been one of the principal draughtsmen and illustrators associated with the Schultz publishing enterprise during the mid-1860s. Contemporary Schultz advertisements explicitly credit him with drawing educational plates and natural history studies, describing works “dessinées par A. Lançon” and “dessinés d’après nature, par A. Lançon.” The same advertisements later praise “M. A. Lançon” for giving the animated tableaux of Les Métiers en Action such remarkably natural movement, strongly suggesting that he also played a major artistic role in the conception of the early movable scenes themselves. The convergence of initials, chronology, subject matter, and documented Schultz collaboration now makes it highly probable that this “A. Lançon” was the French illustrator Auguste-André Lançon (1836–1885), a respected nineteenth century artist later celebrated for his dramatic and highly detailed depictions of tradespeople, laborers, animals, military life, and scenes of everyday Parisian life. A veteran of the Franco Prussian War, Lançon became especially admired for the realism and emotional intensity of his military illustrations and etchings, many inspired by his own wartime experiences. His work was widely exhibited in Paris and helped establish him as an important figure within the vibrant world of nineteenth century French illustration and printmaking.

A. Legrand ad:

Later 1886 ad Journal general de l imprimerie et de la librairie. Deuxieme serie, tome 30. Paris: Au Cercle de la Librairie, 1886 page 2744 It says ' "The subjects of these tableaux, each accompanied by a page of text and explanatory captions in French, English, Spanish, or German, are chosen in such a way as to unite amusement with instruction" Digitized by Google from the collections of the Bibliotheque nationale de France.

The coexistence of Bonhoure and Legrand during the late 1870s and early 1880s is particularly significant. Bibliographie de la France records J. Bonhoure et Cie still actively publishing in 1880 and 1881, demonstrating that the transfer of the Albums Mécaniques to Auguste Legrand did not occur simply because the Bonhoure firm disappeared. Instead, the evidence suggests a more specific transfer, continuation, or restructuring of the movable-book division itself.

The chronology tells an important story. Surviving evidence indicates that Bonhoure editions were still circulating during the late 1860s and 1870s, including Spanish and English-language issues, while Legrand advertisements begin appearing prominently by the late 1870s. The transition between the Bonhoure phase and the Legrand phase may therefore have occurred within less than a decade. Such a short interval strongly suggests continuity of production assets rather than complete independent reinvention.

By approximately 1879–1882, Auguste Legrand begins appearing prominently in French trade notices connected specifically to the Albums Mécaniques, publicly advertising himself in Bibliographie de la France as:

“A. Legrand, éditeur”

and operator of a:

“Fabrique d’albums mécaniques pour enfants.”

Within the operational realities of the nineteenth-century Paris book trade, such a transition would have been entirely plausible. Mechanical movable books were unusually labor-intensive productions requiring specialized assembly, die-cutting, mounting, hand-finishing, and workshop coordination. Unlike ordinary books, they functioned almost as hybrid manufactured objects requiring specialized production infrastructure in addition to publishing capital.

Nineteenth-century publishers rarely discarded costly chromolithographic production materials when a publishing line changed hands. Lithographic stones, printed sheets, movable templates, hand-assembled stock, and production models frequently passed between firms through acquisition, licensing, transfer agreements, liquidation, subcontracting, or continuation arrangements.

Rather than representing a simple succession of ownership, the transition may instead reflect a functional specialization within the educational publishing world itself. Jules Bonhoure’s publishing house appears to have remained active in Protestant and instructional publishing during precisely the same years that Legrand emerged publicly as the principal advertiser and manufacturer of the Albums Mécaniques. This suggests the possibility that the movable-book division was separated, subcontracted, licensed, or transferred operationally to Legrand while the broader Bonhoure publishing enterprise continued independently.

The transition also appears intellectually coherent. Bonhoure’s publishing activities were deeply connected to Protestant instructional literature, multilingual educational works, and visually oriented pedagogical publishing, while Legrand himself emerged from the world of formal educational instruction and annotated school publishing associated with the French lycée system.

Legrand also appears particularly well positioned to assume control of such material. Beyond his documented educational background, his premises at 8 rue d’Assas appear connected to specialized bookbinding and production networks associated with firms such as Société Fée et Cie. It is therefore plausible that Legrand acquired not merely publishing rights to the Albums Mécaniques, but portions of the physical manufacturing apparatus itself, including lithographic stones, assembly templates, movable mechanisms, and production materials.

The Bonhoure editions generally appear to have contained eight movable tableaux, while later Legrand editions were often reduced to six movable scenes, potentially reflecting simplification, cost reduction, adaptation for new markets, or modification of surviving production materials.

At present, however, no surviving archival document has yet been discovered explaining the precise legal transfer of the Albums Mécaniques from Bonhoure to Legrand. The most likely source for such evidence would be the Mouvements de la librairie notices within Bibliographie de la France between approximately 1877 and 1882, where transfers of publishing stock, succession agreements, and continuation notices were commonly recorded.

The complex History after Legrand took over the series:

Explaining the complex publishing history once Legrand took over requires caution. What follows represents the most internally consistent explanation for the surviving physical and bibliographical evidence presently known, but in the absence of a discovered contract, publisher archive, or printer’s ledger, it remains a historical reconstruction rather than a fully documented fact.

One especially important question immediately emerges from the surviving Legrand albums: why would a single publisher, producing a single unified type of product, use three separate lithographic printing workshops? The answer appears to point toward something far more historically interesting than a simple division of labor by product type.

Looking at the three printers together, what emerges is not a model of workshop specialization, but one of phased component sourcing, and this interpretation aligns remarkably well with the language Legrand himself used. In an 1886 advertisement, Legrand described his establishment at 8 rue d’Assas explicitly as a “Fabrique d’albums mécaniques pour enfants,” a factory for mechanical albums rather than a single artistic studio or unified atelier. Nineteenth century factories routinely sourced components from whichever suppliers were most available, technically suitable, or commercially practical at each stage of production. Legrand therefore appears to have functioned less as a traditional publisher overseeing a single workshop and more as an assembler, coordinator, and publisher operating through multiple chromolithographic suppliers simultaneously.

The three lithographic firms associated with the Albums Mécaniques appear to represent three distinct production phases or layers within Legrand’s evolving supply chain, each with a different historical origin and function.

The Lemercier plates represent the inherited archaeological layer of the series. These were not newly commissioned by Legrand at all, but surviving physical assets already produced during the earlier Schultz period and carried forward through the Bonhoure succession. When Legrand entered the series around 1881, he appears to have acquired not merely publishing rights, but actual production materials themselves, including lithographic stones, printed sheets, movable templates, and partially assembled stock. His use of Lemercier therefore was not a newly initiated printing relationship, but the continuation of an older one already embedded within the inherited materials themselves. The two Lemercier plates in Album Amusant pour les Enfants Sages are exact matches of earlier Schultz-period scenes, demonstrating that they are effectively reprints rather than newly executed compositions. The continued use of the distinctive silk pull-tabs associated with the earlier Schultz editions further reinforces this direct material continuity between the Schultz, Bonhoure, and Legrand phases.

The Roche plates belong to a second production phase involving newly commissioned additions prepared specifically for Legrand’s hybrid editions. When Legrand needed to supplement or replace inherited Schultz–Bonhoure material, he turned to Bernard Coudert, one of the dominant illustrators associated with the French children’s games and chromolithographic novelty trade. Coudert was already closely connected with the Roche workshop through publishers such as Saussine, meaning that the choice of Roche was driven primarily through the artist-printer relationship itself. Roche was effectively Coudert’s established production environment, and commissioning Coudert naturally meant working through Roche. The four Roche plates in Album Amusant pour les Enfants Sages therefore represent newly created material inserted into an otherwise inherited mechanical framework. The resulting album is not a simple reprint, but a carefully reconfigured hybrid assembled from older Lemercier-produced mechanical scenes together with newly designed Roche lithographs by Coudert.

The production history becomes even more revealing with La Joie des Enfants, another confirmed mechanical pull-tab album illustrated by Coudert. Unlike the Roche-produced hybrid material, this title bears the imprint “Grandjean & Gascard, Paris,” introducing yet another lithographic workshop into the mechanical series. No earlier Schultz or Bonhoure predecessor for this title has yet been securely identified, making it the clearest surviving example of Legrand commissioning a wholly new mechanical album rather than reorganizing inherited material. For this later production phase Legrand again employed Coudert, but appears to have directed the work through Grandjean & Gascard rather than Roche. The most plausible explanation is one of production capacity and workshop availability. By approximately 1883–1884, Roche was heavily engaged with large-scale game-sheet production associated with Saussine, while Grandjean & Gascard, operating within the same broader chromolithographic tradition, were technically capable of handling fully mechanical pull-tab production as the Legrand series expanded.

The surviving evidence therefore suggests a two-phase chronological production model.

During the first phase, approximately 1881–1882, Legrand launched the series primarily by reorganizing inherited Schultz–Bonhoure material. Earlier Lemercier stones and plates were reprinted and reused directly, while new Roche-produced Coudert scenes were inserted where additional material was required.

During the second phase, approximately 1883–1884, .The commercial success of Phase 1 prompts Legrand to expand the series with wholly new titles — La Joie des Enfants, Les Merveilles de la Science et de l'Industrie. For these entirely original productions, Legrand can no longer rely on inherited plates. He continues to use Coudert as his illustrator, but routes at least one title through Grandjean & Gascard as a second production workshop operating in parallel with Roche. Roche was at this period deeply committed to Léon Saussine's high-volume game sheet production — the 250-plus Coudert game sheets that constituted the core of that workshop's commercial output. Commissioning Grandjean & Gascard for a different product type would have been a rational operational decision by Legrand, allowing him to diversify his printer relationships and avoid placing all of his illustrated children's publishing with a single house that was already at full capacity for a competitor

Seen together, the Albums Mécaniques reveal an unexpectedly sophisticated Parisian production ecosystem involving inherited stones, multilingual export material, artists, printers, assemblers, and publishers operating across several decades. The surviving albums therefore emerge not as isolated novelty productions created within a single atelier, but as layered collaborative constructions shaped through succession, adaptation, reuse, and expansion within the broader world of nineteenth century Parisian chromolithographic publishing.

The connecting thread between all three lithographers involved in this series is the Kaeppelin heritage. Kaeppelin — active at 15–17 quai Voltaire from 1832 to 1860 — was the single most important training ground for chromolithographic game and illustrated novelty printing in mid-century Paris. Grandjean was his direct heir through fifteen years of foreman experience. The Roche workshop operated in the same tradition. And Lemercier, from its own parallel position as the largest lithographic house in Paris, printed the same category of illustrated children's albums for Hachette, Bédelet, Belin and others throughout the period.

Future Research:

The next major research step is a systematic inspection of the “Partie officielle / Mouvements de la librairie” section within the Bibliographie de la France for every issue published between January 1877 and December 1883. This section, located in the concluding pages of each weekly issue, recorded official declarations of cessions de fonds de librairie — transfers, sales, successions, and reorganizations of publishing businesses and backlists — required under French commercial law when publishing operations changed hands.

Such notices are especially important because they often documented not merely ownership transfers, but also the continuation of publishing rights, inherited stock, lithographic stones, publishing addresses, and commercial publishing operations. This is especially relevant to the evolving Schultz–Bonhoure–Legrand movable-book tradition. If a formal transfer occurred involving the earlier R. Schultz animated albums, the later Bonhoure continuation of the series, or the eventual Legrand “fabrique d’albums mécaniques,” evidence of the transaction could potentially appear there within months of completion.

The Bibliothèque nationale de France maintains a complete run of the Bibliographie de la France within its Département des périodiques. A focused one day examination of the relevant volumes could potentially determine whether formal cessions were registered between Schultz and Bonhoure, between Bonhoure and Legrand, or whether the movable-book enterprise itself passed through more complex continuation agreements involving inherited stock, publishing rights, or lithographic production materials. Such evidence may finally clarify the precise commercial mechanisms linking the successive publishers of the Albums Mécaniques tradition.

In France, we know that rather than isolated novelty productions emerging suddenly under the imprint “A. Legrand,” editions were produced earlier and now appear embedded within a far broader international culture of Protestant educational publishing, chromolithographic instruction, multilingual pedagogy, and visual learning linking Paris, Switzerland, and the German states during the late nineteenth century.

Schultz and Bonhoure were not merely a predecessors whose books later inspired Legrand. The firm itself published confirmed movable books within a broader educational program emphasizing visual instruction, illustrated learning, and science through play. We have found copies in English, French, and Spanish

Auguste Legrand, meanwhile, was not simply a mysterious producer of novelty movable books. He was an educator, translator, pedagogical editor, and instructor connected with visual and technical education who later reproduced, reorganized, and republished earlier Bonhoure movable albums through a specialized “fabrique d’albums mécaniques” operating at 8, rue d’Assas in Paris. The surviving evidence suggests that Legrand assembled these later albums using a combination of older Lemercier-printed lithographic plates inherited from the earlier Schultz–Bonhoure productions together with newly commissioned scenes printed by the Roche workshop, creating hybrid editions that combined reused mechanical tableaux with newly designed material.

The Albums Mecaniques therefore belong not only to the history of paper engineering, but also to a larger nineteenth century tradition of educational visual publishing in which movement, play, and instruction were closely intertwined.

The ghost behind the Albums Mécaniques is therefore no longer entirely invisible, yet the final commercial mechanisms connecting Schultz, Bonhoure, Legrand, Nitzschke, and the German mechanical workshops — whether through acquisition, inherited stock, transferred lithographic stones, shared engineering traditions, or continuation agreements — still remain partially hidden somewhere within the surviving archives of nineteenth century Paris and Germany.

Appendix 1

Jules Bonhoure and the Bonhoure Publishing Enterprise

The figure behind the imprint “J. Bonhoure” associated with the Albums Mécaniques can now be identified with high probability as Jules Bonhoure (1839–1889), a French Protestant pastor, missionary, educator, publisher, and publicist connected with the long-running Bonhoure publishing house at 48 Rue de Lille in Paris. Although no surviving digitized trade directory has yet been located explicitly spelling out “Jules Bonhoure, libraire-éditeur,” the cumulative documentary evidence now strongly supports this identification.

Jules Bonhoure emerged from a deeply rooted Protestant Cévennes family centered around Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort in the Gard, one of the historic centers of French Reformed Protestantism. Genealogical and Protestant pastoral records identify his father as Jean Bonhoure (1813–1873), a Protestant pastor who later served as a schoolteacher (“instituteur”) at Aïn Arnat in Algeria. This educational and evangelical environment strongly shaped the later character of the Bonhoure publishing enterprise, which became heavily associated with Protestant educational literature, juvenile publishing, missionary works, and multilingual instructional publications.

A biographical study published in Protestantisme et éducation dans les Cévennes records that Jules Bonhoure was born in Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort in 1839 and entered the Olivier boarding school at a young age before continuing his theological studies at the Maison des Missions in Paris. The same source states that he became one of the close friends of the future Protestant theologian Auguste Sabatier.

In 1859, at only twenty years of age, Jules Bonhoure married Marie Elisabeth Eugenie Boissier and departed with her for China under the Société des Missions Évangéliques de Paris. Archival missionary records preserved by the Défap / Bibliothèque du Défap identify Jules Bonhoure as one of the Protestant missionaries selected alongside Oscar Rau of Lausanne to establish the China mission. Contemporary missionary reports signed by Bonhoure place him in Hong Kong and Macao during the opening years of the Protestant evangelical mission in China.

Jules and Marie had two children: Adrien Jules Jean Bonhoure, born in Shanghai in 1860 and later Chief of Staff to the President of the Council under Charles Floquet, and Jules Marie Louis Bonhoure, born in 1862.

Tragedy struck the family in 1862 when Marie Bonhoure ( nee Boissier) died in Shang - Haï China in 1862 during a cholera epidemic while serving as a missionary, leaving Jules Bonhoure widowed at the age of twenty-three with young children. He subsequently returned to France, where he resumed Protestant pastoral work and later served successively at Limoges, Alès, and with the Mission Intérieure in Paris.

A memorial dedication appeared in Les grands missionnaires. Paris: J. Bonhoure et Cie, Éditeurs, 48 rue de Lille, 1875, page 5

During the same period Bonhoure increasingly became involved in Protestant educational and literary publishing. Trade notices, dépôt légal records, evangelical advertisements, and publishing directories throughout the 1870s consistently identify “J. Bonhoure et Cie.” and “J. Bonhoure, éditeur” as active Paris publishers associated with educational works, evangelical literature, missionary publications, juvenile books, and chromolithographic illustrated albums.

One of the most important discoveries concerning the Bonhoure enterprise is the institutional database record preserved by the INRP Presse de l’éducation for Le Rayon de soleil: Journal mensuel illustré pour les enfants. The official educational press database explicitly states that the journal was “édité successivement à Paris, chez J. Bonhoure” beginning in 1874. The journal itself described its mission as providing “une lecture saine et évangélique aux enfants” (“sound and evangelical reading for children”). This evidence is especially significant because it demonstrates that the Bonhoure enterprise was not merely a general bookselling house, but an active publisher of Protestant illustrated juvenile educational material during the exact years in which the Albums Mécaniques were being continued under the Bonhoure imprint.

The broader Bonhoure publishing operation appears to have functioned as a sophisticated international Protestant educational network rather than as a narrow religious press. Subscription notices issued from 48 Rue de Lille reveal organized distribution systems extending across Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Africa, and additional foreign markets. Contemporary advertisements describe the firm as handling subscriptions to newspapers and journals “of France and abroad” while simultaneously promoting its own “Collection d’Albums en Chromolithographie pour l’Enfance et la Jeunesse.” The evidence demonstrates that the movable and animated albums formed only one branch within a much larger publishing enterprise devoted to multilingual educational publishing, visual pedagogy, evangelical instruction, and juvenile literature.

The connection between Schultz and Bonhoure is now especially clear. A Paris trade notice dated 11 September 1872 records that “BONHOURE (J.), 204 rue de Rivoli … remplace le sieur Schultz,” establishing a direct documented succession between the Schultz operation and the Bonhoure publishing enterprise at the same address associated with the earlier Albums Mécaniques. The coexistence of Schultz and Bonhoure imprints on surviving copies therefore appears not contradictory, but transitional, reflecting continuity within the same evolving illustrated educational publishing enterprise.

The Bonhoure operation also remained deeply embedded within the Protestant evangelical world of Paris. A correction notice published in A Guide to Evangelical Work on the Continent of Europe updated the Bonhoure address from 204 Rue de Rivoli to 48 Rue de Lille while simultaneously identifying the French Baptist Chapel at the same address. The publishing house and Protestant evangelical mission therefore operated within the same institutional environment during the very years in which the Albums Mécaniques were being produced and distributed.

Bibliographie de la France, 1874, p. 64. Advertisement announcing the forthcoming relocation of J. Bonhoure’s publishing operation from 204 rue de Rivoli to 48 rue de Lille.

The exact founding date of the Bonhoure enterprise remains somewhat uncertain. German trade directories later described the publishing house as founded (“Gegründet”) in 1860. However, an 1885 Monnerat succession notice simultaneously described “the long-established firm of J. Bonhoure & Cie.” as having existed for “more than sixty years.” These conflicting dates may reflect different phases of reorganization, inheritance, or formal commercial registration within an older family enterprise.

By the mid-1880s the Bonhoure publishing operation had entered a successor phase under Paul Monnerat, who was explicitly identified in trade directories as “Successeur de J. Bonhoure & Co.” at the same Rue de Lille address. This continuity becomes especially important in 1889 when Monnerat published L’Année protestante ou Vies de protestants éminents de langue française pour chaque jour de l’année by “J. B.,” later bibliographically expanded as Jules Bonhoure. The appearance of this Protestant work at the former Bonhoure address during the very year of Jules Bonhoure’s death strongly suggests that the volume represented either a final or posthumous publication issued by the successor to the Bonhoure publishing house.

Jules Bonhoure later remarried Julie Elisabeth Isabelle Mauren. The couple had several children, including Clement Benjamin Bonhoure (b. 1866), Marie Julia Bonhoure (b. 1867), Louis Bonhoure (b. 1870), Lucie Celina Sophie Bonhoure (b. 1871, d. 1900), and Alice Louise Zelie Bonhoure (b. 1879, d. 1954).

Jules Bonhoure died in Paris in May 1889. On 27 May 1889, at least three Paris newspapers — Le Figaro, L’Écho de Paris, and Paris — simultaneously published notices announcing his death. These notices identified him as the son of a former figure connected with the Paris press and as the brother of a colonial official, placing Bonhoure within a broader Protestant intellectual and journalistic family network active in nineteenth century French public life.

Taken together, the cumulative evidence from missionary archives, dépôt légal records, Protestant educational databases, trade notices, evangelical journals, publishing directories, obituary notices, and Monnerat succession records now makes the identification of “J. Bonhoure” with Jules Bonhoure effectively certain for scholarly purposes. The Bonhoure enterprise appears to have functioned as a major Protestant educational and multilingual publishing network within which the Albums Mécaniques represented one especially innovative branch devoted to chromolithographic juvenile animation, visual pedagogy, and international illustrated publishing.

The appearance of the printer’s line “Imp. Lemercier et Cie, Paris” on the Schultz–Bonhoure Albums Mécaniques places these remarkable movable books within the highest level of nineteenth-century French colour printing. Rose-Joseph Lemercier (1803–1887) was not merely a commercial printer, but one of the most important lithographers and chromolithographic innovators in Europe. Much of the following biographical information derives from Corinne Bouquin’s extensive research in the Dictionnaire des imprimeurs-lithographes du XIXe siècle and her doctoral work on the Imprimerie Lemercier.

Born in Paris on 29 June 1803 into a working-class family of seventeen children, Lemercier was the son of a basket-maker and initially trained in that same trade before being drawn into the rapidly expanding world of lithography. Two of his brothers, Gabriel and Ambroise Lemercier, also entered the lithographic profession, transforming the family into a remarkable dynasty of artisan printers during the explosive growth of nineteenth-century illustrated publishing (Bouquin, “LEMERCIER”).

Lemercier’s technical education unfolded through several major Parisian lithographic ateliers. From 1822 to 1825 he worked in the important workshop of Langlumé, first as an unskilled press labourer before gradually learning lithography from the ground up. He later became foreman for Mlle Formentin before entering the atelier of Édouard Knecht, nephew of Aloys Senefelder, the inventor of lithography itself. This connection placed Lemercier unusually close to the original technical lineage of the lithographic process.

Although he possessed limited formal schooling, Lemercier pursued self-education aggressively, reportedly hiring tutors for evening instruction while simultaneously mastering the increasingly sophisticated chemistry and mechanics of lithographic printing. This combination of artisanal training, technical innovation, and personal ambition would define his career. In 1828 Lemercier purchased a lithographic printing licence and established his own workshop with a single press at 2 rue Pierre-Sarrazin. Expansion followed rapidly. Within a year he moved to larger quarters at rue du Four Saint-Germain, and during the 1830s he began receiving medals and official recognition for innovations in lithographic inks, crayons, and preservation techniques for lithographic stones (Bouquin, Recherches sur l’imprimerie lithographique à Paris au XIXe siècle).

The decisive turning point came in 1837, when Lemercier entered a formal partnership with the printer Jean-François Bénard, creating the firm Lemercier, Bénard et Cie. The scale of the operation was already enormous by contemporary standards: sixty presses, approximately 10,000 proprietary lithographic stones, and an additional 30,000 stones held for publishers and reprint commissions. By 1843 Lemercier had bought out his partner completely and become sole proprietor of what was rapidly emerging as the largest lithographic establishment in France.

The firm’s permanent and most famous address came after 1851 at 57 rue de Seine in Paris. From this vast workshop Lemercier built one of the most technologically advanced chromolithographic operations in Europe. By 1849 the company employed approximately 120 workers operating seventy-five presses; by 1852 the workforce had grown to approximately 180 workers across more than eighty presses. Contemporary observers described the establishment as one of the great industrial enterprises of France (ELEC; Bibliothèque de Genève Iconographie).

A surviving interior lithograph of the workshop reveals a breathtaking industrial environment: rows of lithographic presses stretching across enormous work floors, galleries filled with artists and draughtsmen, and cabinets packed floor-to-ceiling with Bavarian lithographic limestones preserved for future printing runs. The scale resembled a fusion of art studio, factory, and scientific laboratory.

Lemercier’s commercial production was extraordinarily diverse. The firm printed fashion plates, advertising imagery, maps, religious prints, sheet music covers, illustrated journals, luxury books, educational atlases, and some of the finest chromolithographic work produced during the Second Empire. Among the publishers and authors associated with the firm were Michel Lévy, Hachette, Gide et Baudry, Mame, and many other leading names in French publishing.

The workshop also produced major government commissions. Under Baron Haussmann’s reconstruction of Paris, Lemercier printed chromolithographic administrative maps and geological atlases documenting the transformation of the modern city. These projects required exceptionally precise colour registration and advanced technical printing methods. Surviving examples include the Atlas administratif de la ville de Paris and Delesse’s Carte géologique souterraine de la ville de Paris, both printed by Lemercier in chromolithography.

Lemercier also played a pioneering role in photolithography. During the late 1840s and early 1850s he collaborated with scientists and photographic specialists to develop methods for transferring photographic images directly onto lithographic stones. This process, which Lemercier termed “lithophotographie,” represented one of the earliest attempts to unite photography with industrial printing technology. By the mid-1850s the firm had become internationally known for these experiments, helping establish foundations for later photographic printing processes (“Lemercier and Lithophotography,” The Art of the Photogravure).

Lemercier’s workshop was equally important artistically. The firm printed works associated with Gustave Doré, Victor Adam, Henri Le Secq, and many major nineteenth-century illustrators and designers. In its later decades the atelier also became associated with the flourishing art-poster movement of the fin de siècle, eventually printing designs connected to artists such as Alphonse Mucha and Jules Chéret.

For collectors of movable books, however, the most interesting fact is that Lemercier also printed chromolithographic covers and illustrated material for children’s books and educational publishing. The appearance of the Lemercier imprint on the Schultz–Bonhoure Albums Mécaniques demonstrates that these movable books were not cheaply improvised novelty items, but sophisticated productions created within the finest chromolithographic infrastructure available in nineteenth-century Paris.

This matters because the Albums Mécaniques required extraordinary technical coordination. The lithographed scenes had to withstand mounting, cutting, layering, silk reinforcement, movable tabs, and elastic return mechanisms. Precision colour registration was essential because even minor misalignment would disrupt the illusion of movement within the animated scenes. The rich colours, durable surfaces, and intricate printed details of the surviving albums are entirely consistent with the capabilities of the Lemercier atelier.

The Lemercier connection therefore elevates the Schultz–Bonhoure–Legrand movable books into the broader history of elite nineteenth-century illustrated publishing. These were not ephemeral toys produced by anonymous workshops, but carefully engineered chromolithographic objects emerging from one of the most advanced printing establishments in Europe.

Rose-Joseph Lemercier died on 1 January 1887.

Rose-Joseph's nephew Alfred Léon Lemercier (1831–1900) was a French lithographer, printmaker, publisher, and artistic director associated with the celebrated Paris chromolithographic firm Lemercier et Cie.

Under the Lemercier firm, Alfred worked within one of the most technologically advanced chromolithographic workshops of the nineteenth century. The establishment at 57 rue de Seine became internationally known for luxury illustrated books, chromolithographs, posters, maps, fashion plates, art reproductions, and other high-quality color printing. Alfred officially became partner in the firm in 1862 and later succeeded his uncle in directing the company following Rose-Joseph Lemercier’s death in 1887.

After Alfred Léon Lemercier’s death at Nanterre on 15 September 1900, the famed Lemercier lithographic establishment entered a period of severe financial decline that ultimately led to its closure around 1901 seventy-three years after the young former basket-maker opened his first lithographic press in Paris.

Alfred, who had directed the firm after succeeding his uncle during the mid nineteenth century, had already overseen a major bankruptcy in 1891, after which the company was sold to a group of investors who transferred operations to the rue Vercingétorix while continuing to operate under the well-known Lemercier name.

Today Alfred Léon Lemercier is remembered not only as part of the famous Lemercier printing dynasty, but also as an important lithographic artist connected to the development of French chromolithography during the second half of the nineteenth century.

More information on Alfred Léon Lemercier and the history of the Lemercier lithographic establishment can be found here on Grokipedia:
Alfred L'mercier

Appendix 111
Louis Mohr and Nineteenth-Century Typographical Scholarship

Mohr emerges from contemporary references as one of the most significant bibliographical and typographical scholars associated with the Strasbourg printing world of the late nineteenth century. Originally trained as a bookseller, Mohr reportedly entered the Berger-Levrault printing house approximately thirty years before his death and devoted twenty-nine years of service to the renowned establishment later known as R. Schultz & Co.¹⁰ Contemporary accounts describe him as a conscientious researcher in the history of typography and as a highly capable bibliographer whose scholarly interests ranged across printing history, dialect literature, typographical periodicals, commemorative printing jubilees, microscopic printing, and bibliographical studies.

Mohr authored numerous bibliographical works published through R. Schultz & Co., including Schiller’s Lied von der Glocke: Eine bibliographische Studie (1877), Die periodische Fachpresse der Typographie und der verwandten Geschäftszweige (1879), Bibliographie der in Elsässischer Mundart erschienenen Schriften, Des impressions microscopiques, and Die Jubelfeste der Buchdruckerkunst und ihre Literatur. Reviews published in German and French scholarly journals praised Mohr’s diligence, archival research, and bibliographical erudition. His studies documented early editions, translations, illustrated books, typographic curiosities, printing history, and literary parodies, revealing an unusually sophisticated bibliographical methodology for the period. Several of these publications were issued in small private editions of only one hundred copies, further demonstrating the cultivated scholarly and typographic culture surrounding the Strasbourg Schultz press.

According to Bigmore, Mohr’s personal library, manuscripts, notes, and collections relating to printing history were destroyed by fire during the Siege of Strasbourg in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.¹¹ Contemporary obituary notices report that he later rebuilt his collections with compensation granted after the war, eventually assembling another important library along with collections of medals and coins relating to the history of printing. Because Mohr was so closely associated with Berger-Levrault and R. Schultz & Co., and because Strasbourg itself suffered catastrophic destruction during the 1870 siege and bombardment, it remains possible that additional company archives or earlier printing records were likewise lost or damaged, although direct evidence for such losses has not yet been identified.

Mohr died from heart failure in 1884, but contemporary obituary notices emphasized that the bibliographical and typographical world would long preserve the memory of this “diligent and modest man of honor.”

Appendix IV
Joseph Grandjean and the Firm of Grandjean & Gascard

Joseph Grandjean was one of the many highly skilled but now largely forgotten chromolithographic printers who helped shape the visual culture of nineteenth century Parisian illustrated publishing. Although his name rarely appears in modern histories of movable books, surviving lithographic imprints reveal that the firm of Grandjean & Gascard played an important role within the later production history of the Albums Mécaniques series issued by A. Legrand during the early 1880s.

Grandjean was born on 24 June 1821 in Villiers-la-Montagne, Moselle. His professional formation took place within one of the most technically important lithographic establishments in mid nineteenth century Paris: the workshop of Eugène Florent Kaeppelin at 15–17 quai Voltaire. This connection is especially significant because Kaeppelin’s firm was not merely a conventional printing house, but one of the principal Parisian centers for advanced chromolithographic novelty production. Contemporary records specifically describe the Kaeppelin workshop as producing “illustrations chromolithographiées pour des cartes de jeux,” or chromolithographed illustrations for game cards, placing the establishment directly within the rapidly expanding nineteenth century market for illustrated amusements, toy sheets, games, and popular visual novelties.

Grandjean did not simply apprentice briefly within this environment. He remained associated with the Kaeppelin establishment for approximately fifteen years, eventually rising to the position of contremaître, or foreman, supervising day-to-day production within one of Paris’s most technically sophisticated chromolithographic workshops. During these years the Kaeppelin establishment produced military maps, sheet music covers, commercial color lithographs, popular imagery, illustrated novelties, and game-related chromolithography requiring highly specialized multi-stone color printing techniques. When the Kaeppelin operation ceased activity around 1860, Grandjean carried this accumulated technical expertise directly into the independent Parisian print trade.

After a brief transitional association with the printer Roussaux, dissolved in July 1863, Grandjean obtained his own lithographic license and formally established an independent workshop on 19 March 1864 at 12 rue du Jardinet in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. His early independent production reflected the same broad chromolithographic tradition in which he had trained, including illustrated novel covers, posters, popular imagery, and richly decorated sheet music covers for major Paris music publishers such as Richault. In 1870 Grandjean entered into partnership with Henri Paul Gascard, after which the firm operated under the imprint “Grandjean & Gascard, Imprimeur-Lithographe.” During the Franco-Prussian War the firm produced war lithographs for publisher Bérod, placing the workshop directly within the illustrated current-events trade that flourished during the conflict. By the 1870s and 1880s Grandjean & Gascard had become an established Parisian chromolithographic house serving multiple publishers across several categories of illustrated commercial printing.

References:

Schultz, Borel, and the Early Librairie Francaise et Etrangere Network

Archives departementales de Meurthe et Moselle. Fonds Berger Levrault 57 J, finding aid, reference 57 J 5/28; Paul Andre Have, “Strasbourg, centre europeen de la formation?” referencing Zur Erinnerung an das 200jahrige Jubilaum der Buchdruckerei des Hauses R. Schultz & Cie. in Strassburg i E., den 26 September 1885.

Used for identifying Rudolf Schultz and documenting the Strasbourg successor firm connected with the former Berger Levrault printing house.

Allgemeines Adressbuch fur den deutschen Buchhandel. Leipzig, 1871, 257.

Used for documenting R. Schultz at 25 rue Royale Saint Honore under the Librairie Francaise et Etrangere and for the firm’s international bookselling profile.

Bibliographie de la France. Paris, 1863, 900.

Used to document the early commercial structure of the Librairie Francaise et Etrangere operated by R. Schultz in Paris, including the transfer from 33 rue de la Chaussee d’Antin to 25 rue Royale Saint Honore.

Bibliographie de la France: Annonces. Partie 3, vol. 2. Paris, 1869, 792.

Trade notice announcing that the Librairie francaise et etrangere de R. Schultz would relocate on 1 August 1869 from 25 rue Royale Saint Honore to 204 rue de Rivoli.

A. L. O. E. Garra; ou “Rachete a Grand Prix.” Paris: Librairie Francaise et Etrangere de R. Schultz, 204 rue de Rivoli, 1871.

Documents the operation of Schultz’s firm under the title Librairie Francaise et Etrangere at 204 rue de Rivoli.

A. Racine-Braud. Tablettes historiques du protestantisme francais contenant les faits les plus memorables de l'histoire du protestantisme en France. Paris: Librairie francaise et etrangere de R. Schultz, 204 rue de Rivoli, 1872, 364.

Provides the formal business name of Schultz’s establishment as Librairie francaise et etrangere de R. Schultz.

Bibliographie de la France: Annonces. Partie 3, vol. 2. Paris, 1866, 1159.

Used to document A. Lancon’s role as a draughtsman and illustrator within the Schultz publishing enterprise, including works advertised as “dessinees par A. Lancon.”

Borsenblatt fur den deutschen Buchhandel. Leipzig, 1873, 3019.

Important contemporary trade notice documenting the transfer of the Strasbourg operations of Berger Levrault & Co. Buchhandlung, Buchdruckerei, Lithographie to Schultz & Co.

The Printing Times and Lithographer. An Illustrated Monthly Journal. London, 1878, 262.

Used for English language trade context concerning R. Schultz & Co. and the former Berger Levrault Strasbourg establishment.

Handbuch der Geschichte der Buchdruckerkunst. Quoted in nineteenth century German printing histories.

Used for contextual evidence concerning the scale and industrial character of the Strasbourg printing operation.

Persee educational publishing references for Alsace Lorraine; FranceArchives Fonds Berger Levrault research notes.

Used for contextual evidence concerning Alsace Lorraine educational publishing and the Berger Levrault to Schultz transition.

Kaiserliche Universitats und Landesbibliothek in Strassburg. Katalog der elsass lothringischen Abteilung, Vol. 2. Strassburg, 1929, 550.

Used for bibliographic evidence concerning the 1885 bicentennial commemorative volume for R. Schultz & Cie.

Paul Andre Have. “Strasbourg, centre europeen de la formation?”; bibliographical references connecting Louis Mohr with R. Schultz & Co.

Used for context on the Strasbourg printing establishment and personnel connected with R. Schultz & Co.

Contemporary obituary notices reprinted in typographical and bibliographical journals.

Used for biographical context relating to Schultz and the Strasbourg printing circle.

Bigmore, E. C. A Bibliography of Printing with Notes & Illustrations, Vol. II. London: Bernard Quaritch, 1884, p. 47.

Used for broader printing history context.

Edouard Borel. Statistique des associations protestantes religieuses et charitables de France. 1864.

Used to document Borel’s role within Protestant charitable, evangelical, educational, and multilingual publishing circles connected to the early Librairie Francaise et Etrangere environment.

Schultz, R., & Cie. (Berger-Levrault’s Nachfolger) … Bes.: Rudolf Schultz …” German trade directory, 1873.

Atlas d’histoire naturelle. Vegetaux. Paris: Bonhoure; Esslingen: J. F. Schreiber, ca. 1880.

Co-publication record documenting the Bonhoure Schreiber chromolithographic partnership during the precise period when the Albums Mecaniques were transitioning to Auguste Legrand.

Bibliographie de la France. Formerly Bibliographie de l’Empire francais. 1877, 732.

Bibliographical evidence documenting Bonhoure movable titles including Les Animaux Industrieux, Nouvelles Folies Enfantines, Scenes Emouvantes et Paisibles, and Les Metiers en Action.

Bibliographie de la France. January 1881. Entry for A. Boegner, Patterson le missionnaire de la Melanesie, deposited 18 December 1880.

Confirms that J. Bonhoure et Cie remained actively operating during the precise period when Auguste Legrand emerged publicly as publisher of the Albums Mecaniques.

Bottin du commerce de Paris. 1856.

Commercial directory evidence describing Bonhoure as a specialist bookseller for educational prize distributions.

Bulletin de la Societe de l'Histoire du Protestantisme Francais. Vol. 20. 1871, 428.

Includes a signed reference to J. Bonhoure in Protestant correspondence and archival material.

Catalogue des ouvrages et documents composant la bibliotheque de la ville de Rouen. Vol. 2. Rouen, 1886, 218.

Bibliographical evidence directly linking the German educational atlas Naturgeschichte der Saugethiere published by J. F. Schreiber with the French adaptation Atlas d’histoire naturelle. Mammiferes issued by J. Bonhoure et Cie.

David Young. A Dialogue between a Baptist and a Pedobaptist. Revised edition. Paris: J. Bonhoure et Cie, 1876.

Title page identifies J. Bonhoure et Cie, Libraires Editeurs, 48 rue de Lille, Paris, and advertises Le Liberateur under Theodore Monod.

Historical records relating to the Eglise Evangelique Baptiste de Paris. 48 rue de Lille, inaugurated 14 September 1873.

Contextual evidence establishing that J. Bonhoure et Cie operated from within the Paris Baptist evangelical community.

Journal general de l’imprimerie et de la librairie. Vol. 16. Paris, 11 September 1872, 468.

Trade notice recording that BONHOURE J., 204 rue de Rivoli, replaced Schultz, establishing direct continuity between the Schultz and Bonhoure operations.

Bibliographie de la France. Paris: Cercle de la Librairie, 1877, 1721.

Notice announcing the dissolution of J. Bonhoure et Co. and stating that M. J. Bonhoure remained solely responsible for the business after the withdrawal of Voreaux.

Journal general de l’imprimerie et de la librairie. 1886, 2744.

Useful for documenting contemporary publishing activity associated with the Bonhoure firm and related educational publications.

Journal general de l’imprimerie et de la librairie. Reference to “L. Bonhoure fils, ex-professeur de lecture analytique et de grammaire raisonnee.”

Identifies Leon Bonhoure fils as a former educator and pedagogical author.

Lorenz, Otto Henri. Catalogue general de la librairie francaise, vol. 9: 1876–1885. Paris: Otto Lorenz, 1887.

Documents the publishing activities of J. Bonhoure et Cie, including chromolithographic educational works, instructional albums, Protestant publications, and the emergence of Leon Bonhoure.

Masse, A. Il y a cent ans: origine des Ecoles du dimanche. Lausanne: Mognot; Paris: Bonhoure, 1880.

Evidence linking Bonhoure directly to the Franco Swiss Protestant educational publishing network and Sunday school pedagogy.

Jules Bonhoure. L’Annee protestante ou Vies de protestants eminents de langue francaise pour chaque jour de l’annee. Paris: P. Monnerat, Libraire, 48 Rue de Lille, 1889.

Evidence connecting Jules Bonhoure to the later Monnerat publishing operation at 48 Rue de Lille.

Adressbuch des deutschen Buchhandels. Vol. 52. 1890, 333.

Used for evidence that by 1890 the Bonhoure publishing enterprise had passed into another successor phase, identifying Paul Monnerat as Successeur de J. Bonhoure & Co. at 48 rue de Lille.

Allgemeines Adressbuch fur den deutschen Buchhandel, den Antiquar, Kunst, Musikalien und Landkartenhandel. 1887, 291.

Entry for Paul Monnerat, Successeur de J. Bonhoure & Co., Libraire Editeur a Paris, 48 Rue de Lille, noting Gegr. 1860.

Defap / Bibliotheque du Defap. Societe des Missions Evangeliques de Paris, General Assembly records, 1859.

Missionary records identifying Jules Bonhoure of Saint Hippolyte du Fort as one of the Protestant missionaries selected in 1859 to establish the China mission alongside Oscar Rau of Lausanne.

Francoise Mazel-Degans and Annie Mazel-Gouron. Protestantisme et education dans les Cevennes: L’institution protestante de Saint Hippolyte du Fort. 2009, 53.

Principal biographical source for Jules Bonhoure, documenting his birth in 1839, studies at the Maison des Missions, departure for China, death of his wife, later pastoral appointments, and operation of a Paris publishing house.

INRP Presse de l’education database. Le Rayon de soleil: Journal mensuel illustre pour les enfants, 1874–1965.

Official institutional database recording that Le Rayon de soleil was edited successively in Paris chez J. Bonhoure beginning in 1874.

Gallica, Bibliotheque nationale de France. L’Eglise Libre: Archives du Christianisme Evangelique, 15 December 1876, no. 50, Supplement, p. II.

Advertisement for J. Bonhoure & Cie., libraires editeurs, 48 rue de Lille, promoting its Collection d’Albums en Chromolithographie pour l’Enfance et la Jeunesse, including Scenes emouvantes et paisibles and Les Metiers en Action.

Bibliographie de la France; depot legal notices; IdRef/BnF authority records. 1873–1879.

Official French publishing and depot legal records documenting the active publishing operations of J. Bonhoure et Cie and J. Bonhoure, editeur during the Albums Mecaniques transition.

Le Figaro, L’Echo de Paris, and Paris. Obituary notices, 27 May 1889.

Simultaneous Paris newspaper notices documenting the death of Jules Bonhoure in May 1889.

Legrand and Educational Publishing

Annuaire de l’instruction publique. Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1878, 271.

Early reference to Legrand A. associated with the Ecole normale d’enseignement secondaire special at Cluny.

Annuaire de l’instruction publique et des beaux arts. Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1880, 67.

Identifies Legrand A. as instructor in dessin d’imitation at the Ecole normale d’enseignement secondaire special at Cluny.

Annuaire de l’instruction publique et des beaux arts. Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1882, 53.

Additional corroborating reference continuing to list Legrand A. among the instructional staff at Cluny.

Bibliographie de la France. “Chronique.” 29 March 1879, 220.

Documentary evidence identifying LEGRAND Auguste, 8 rue d’Assas, Paris.

Bibliographie de la France. 1880, 2307.

Useful for documenting Auguste Legrand’s expanding publishing activities surrounding the Albums Mecaniques during the early 1880s.

Bibliographie de la France. 1882, 1988.

Important for documenting Legrand’s continued publication and distribution of mechanical albums.

Lorenz, Otto Henri. Catalogue general de la librairie francaise, vol. 10. Paris: Otto Lorenz, 1887, 114.

Useful for documenting A. Legrand’s role as educational editor, translator, and professor of English.

William Shakespeare. Jules Cesar. Bilingual school edition edited by A. Legrand. Wikimedia Commons.

Surviving example identifying A. Legrand as an agrege and educational editor associated with bilingual instructional publishing.

Desse, Jacques. “Augustin Legrand, un pionnier inconnu du livre jeunesse.” Strenae, no. 10, 2016.

Modern scholarly study discussing Augustin Legrand and nineteenth century French juvenile publishing history.

Educational and Protestant Context

Anne Ruolt. “La laicisation de l'ecole protestante au XIXe siecle.” Revue d'histoire du protestantisme 3, no. 2, 2018: 243–275.

Used to contextualize nineteenth century Protestant educational networks operating in France during the period of Schultz, Borel, and Bonhoure.

Ruolt, A. “Les ecoles du dimanche en France (1852–1902).” Etudes Theologiques et Religieuses 86, no. 1, 2011.

Contextualizes the nineteenth century French Protestant Sunday school movement and the evangelical educational culture surrounding J. Bonhoure et Cie.

Matasci, Damiano. L’ecole republicaine et l’etranger: Une histoire internationale des reformes scolaires en France, 1870–1914. Lyon: ENS Editions, 2020.

Useful for contextualizing nineteenth century French republican educational reforms, visual instruction, participatory pedagogy, and the broader educational culture.

Revue critique des ouvrages de litterature, de science et d’art.

Used for references to La Science par le Jeu and related educational methods emphasizing visual and interactive pedagogy.

Bernard Coudert and Roche

Musee Tomi Ungerer – Centre international de l’Illustration. “COUDERT Bernard.” Navigart Collections Database. Accessed May 24, 2026.
https://www.navigart.fr/ungerer/artworks/authors/COUDERT%20Bernard↹COUDERT%20Bernard

Preserves one of the most important surviving archives of Bernard Coudert’s work and demonstrates that Coudert worked across multiple publishers.

Lemercier Printing House

Bouquin, Corinne. “LEMERCIER.” Dictionnaire des imprimeurs lithographes du XIXe siecle. Ecole nationale des chartes. Accessed May 22, 2026.
http://elec.enc.sorbonne.fr/imprimeurs/node/22685

Single most important scholarly source on Lemercier’s life, business history, partnerships, addresses, industrial scale, political activity, awards, and technical innovations.

Bouquin, Corinne. Recherches sur l’imprimerie lithographique a Paris au XIXe siecle: l’imprimerie Lemercier, 1803–1901. Doctoral thesis, Universite Paris I Sorbonne, 1993.

Major academic study devoted to the history of the Lemercier printing house.

Imprimerie Lemercier. Bibliotheque de Geneve Iconographie. Accessed May 22, 2026.
https://www.bge-geneve.ch/iconographie/personne/imprimerie-lemercier

Institutional reference confirming the importance of the firm and documenting surviving lithographic and chromolithographic production associated with Lemercier.

The Art of the Photogravure. Accessed May 22, 2026.
https://photogravure.com/highlights/lemercier-and-lithophotography/

Source for Lemercier’s pioneering experiments in lithophotography and early photographic printing technology.

Alfred Lemercier — Grokipedia. Accessed 2026.
https://grokipedia.com/page/alfred_lemercier

Biographical and contextual reference for Alfred Lemercier.

Full text of Journal general de l’imprimerie et de la librairie. Internet Archive. Accessed 2026.
https://archive.org/stream/journalgnraldel02fragoog/journalgnraldel02fragoog_djvu.txt

Full text access point for nineteenth century French printing and publishing notices.

LEMERCIER. Dictionnaire des imprimeurs lithographes du XIXe siecle. ELEC, Ecole nationale des chartes. Accessed 2026.
http://elec.enc.sorbonne.fr/imprimeurs/node/22685

Scholarly reference documenting Lemercier’s personnel, chronology, and lithographic production activities.

Catalogues of the Paris Salon 1673 to 1881. Internet Archive. Accessed 2026.
https://ia902909.us.archive.org/0/items/cataloguesofpari1863acad/cataloguesofpari1863acad.pdf

Used for Paris Salon references connected with lithographic artists and printers.

La lithographie francaise de 1796 a 1896. Paris, 1897. Wikimedia Commons PDF. Accessed 2026.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/La_lithographie_fran%C3%A7aise_de_1796_%C3%A0_1896_et_les_arts_qui_s%27y_rattachent_-_manuel_pratique_s%27adressant_aux_artistes_et_aux_imprimeurs_%28IA_lalithographiefr00leme%29.pdf

Historical source on French lithography.

Hammer Museum, UCLA. 2016. Accessed 2026.
https://hammer.ucla.edu/blog/2016/02/revivals-and-modernity-the-printed-image-in-nineteenth-century-france-part-3

Contextual source for nineteenth century French print culture.

Lemercier, Alfred Leon (1831–1900). Accessed 2026.
https://printsandprintmaking.gov.au/artists/works/11832/

Reference for works associated with Alfred Leon Lemercier.

Musee national des beaux arts du Quebec. “Lemercier, Alfred Leon.” Accessed 2026.
https://www.mnbaq.org/en/artists/600012345

Museum reference for Alfred Leon Lemercier.

MeisterDrucke. “Art Prints by Alfred Leon Lemercier.” Accessed 2026.
https://www.meisterdrucke.us/artist/Alfred-Leon-Lemercier.html

Image and print reference for Alfred Leon Lemercier.

Alfred Lemercier — Grokipedia. Accessed 2026.
https://grokipedia.com/page/alfred_lemercier

Auguste Andre Lancon

France Pittoresque. “Auguste Lancon, peintre animalier, gravures, eaux fortes, animaux...” 2010.
https://www.france-pittoresque.com/spip.php?article877

Biographical overview of Auguste Andre Lancon and his illustrated work depicting artisans, laborers, tradespeople, and nineteenth century French life.

Musee des Beaux Arts de Rennes. “Collections.”
https://collections.mba.rennes.fr/recherche/*

Museum collection records directly identifying color lithographs by Auguste Andre Lancon printed by Lemercier.

Bibliotheque nationale de France. “Imprimerie Lemercier.”
https://data.bnf.fr/fr/12460378/imprimerie_lemercier

Official BnF authority record documenting the history and operation of the Lemercier lithographic establishment at 57 rue de Seine.

Ecole des chartes / ELEC. “LEMERCIER | Dictionnaire des imprimeurs lithographes du XIXe siecle.”
http://elec.enc.sorbonne.fr/imprimeurs/node/22685

Scholarly reference documenting the personnel, chronology, and lithographic production activities of the Lemercier printing house.

Grandjean and Gascard

Dictionnaire des imprimeurs lithographes du XIXe siecle. “GRANDJEAN.” Ecole nationale des chartes, ELEC. Accessed 2026.
https://elec.enc.sorbonne.fr/imprimeurs/node/22433

Used for Joseph Grandjean’s birth date and birthplace, his fifteen year apprenticeship and foreman role under Kaeppelin, establishment of his independent lithographic workshop at 12 rue du Jardinet, partnership with Henri Paul Gascard, and the chronology of the Grandjean & Gascard firm.

Dictionnaire des imprimeurs lithographes du XIXe siecle. “KAEPPELIN.” Ecole nationale des chartes, ELEC. Accessed 2026.
https://elec.enc.sorbonne.fr/imprimeurs/dictionnaire/k

Used for information concerning the Kaeppelin lithographic establishment at 15–17 quai Voltaire, including its production of chromolithographed game illustrations, novelty printing, maps, and commercial color lithography.

Journal general de l’imprimerie et de la librairie. Paris: Cercle de la Librairie, nineteenth century trade notices.
https://archive.org/stream/journalgnraldel02fraggoog

Used for contextual information concerning Parisian lithographic publishing networks and commercial printing relationships active during the period of Grandjean & Gascard.

Other References:

“Full text of Journal général de l’imprimerie et de la librairie.” Internet Archive. Accessed 2026.

https://archive.org/stream/journalgnraldel02fragoog/journalgnraldel02fragoog_djvu.txt

Searchable full-text digital access point for nineteenth-century French publishing trade notices, printer announcements, bookseller advertisements, and commercial succession records relating to Bonhoure, Schultz, Legrand, and associated Parisian publishing networks.

Revue critique des ouvrages de littérature, de science et d’art.

Used for references to La Science par le Jeu and related nineteenth century educational theories emphasizing visual instruction, participatory learning, and interactive pedagogical methods closely aligned with the educational principles underlying the Albums Mécaniques.