Pour les petits et les grands: Combinaisons décoratives application aux travaux manuels

Printed wraps. Oblong 4to (9 x 11 inches); 8pp text + 16 plates, each with 4 patterns, 64 examples in all. Fair to Good condition: Foxing/discoloration and edgewear to wraps, recent spine repair; repaired closed edge tear to a text page; moderate soil to plates and one water stain that has left about 1" bleedmark on two plates. A well-loved copy that has nevertheless retained the luminous color of its extraordinary plates, thanks to the indomitable pigments used in the pochoir process.A collection of patterns drawn by children aged 4-8 after models by their teachers, as well as 12 of their own invention. "The drawings we publish, remarkable as they are, are sincere. We would like to observe the imperfections of execution, which our editors have been able to reproduce, awkwardnesses of which grown-ups, accustomed to the search for regularity, are quite incapable." The immense attention to detail in the precise printing of imprecise patterns resulted in plates that appear like original watercolor."There are in children, especially in the little ones who are all ignorance, all spontaneity, all freshness, poetic resources that schooling has not yet standardized, deformed or repressed... This collection expresses, we believe, the childish mode of decorative composition, if we are willing to admit a name too pompous for kindergarten work... Finally our children, who formerly embroidered useless objects on cardboard, now have at their disposal, with the wools, silks, beads, raffias, which they already handled, fabrics worthy of their patient labor." An enthusiastic endorsement of the child's innate aesthetic capacity and the value of limiting them to geometric forms and restricted color palettes that teach a natural "rhythm" of color and form. The text explains the methodology behind each section of examples. The authors assign an elevated status to the children's designs, emphasizing the importance of design as integral part of a practical matter, rather than mere decoration or ornament--"form follows function," the lasting refrain of the Bauhaus movement--then in full swing--widely acknowledged as an outgrowth of kindergarten work.