Adam, Victor | The "retour des cendres" of Napoleon

Adam, Victor. Retour en France des dépouilles mortelles Napoleon. Paris: Jeannin, 1840

Oblong folio (385 x 555 mm). Front wrapper (from which the title and imprint are derived) with lithographed vignette after Adam, 20 fine lithographed plates after and by Adam, Jules Arnout, and Alphonse Bichebois , all handcolored and heighted with gum arabic, each plate with the blindstamp of the publisher in the lower margin, plates and original wrappers on guards; plate 16 browned and with closed marginal tear, final three plates a bit spotted, the last with some minor marginal tears and repairs, a little other scattered browning and soiling. Twentieth-century half straight-grain green morocco over marbled boards, marbled endpapers, plain edges.

An outstanding series of plates depicting the “retour des cendres”: the 1840 return of the mortal remains of Napoleon Bonaparte from the place of his exile and death, the island of Saint Helena to France and his reburial in Hôtel des Invalides. Although there had been several attempts to repatriate Napoleon’s body after his death in 1821, it was not accomplished until the joint efforts of King Louis Phillippe I and Prime Minister Adolphe Theirs.