Precious album composed of thick leaves of paper which recto and verso are either blue, or painted in dark green. On this painted material have been mounted at the time characters and various scenes on cut cardboard and painted in gouache at the time.
Put together when France was very keen on the Far East, the album depicts several scenes: Chinese dances, Chinese musicians, Mandarins, courtier and courtesans of Beijing, Far East warrior.
Among the 96 characters and scenes cut and sumptuously painted in gouache, besides aristocrats, gentlemen and middle class men of that time, we notice more particularly admirable baroque scenes with fountains, copses and luncheons on the grass, comedians, dancers, various parrots and parakeets, riders, children games, flowers, birds, villages with countryside backgrounds, without leaving out an interesting exotic musical scenes.
Such albums preserved as published since the 18th century are extremely rare and this one, in its original condition, bearing the old handwritten inscription at the beginning « cet album vient du château de Chenonceaux » is expressing a charm and a particularly attractive atmosphere, typical of Louis XV’s spirit.
