IMPERIAL GUARD INFANTRY FIRST EMPIRE: STRASBOURG SOLDIERS FIGURINE MADE OF PAINTED CARDBOARD by the WURTZ family, second half of the 19th century, around 1815-1848. Catalog number 31156-5.

IMPERIAL GUARD INFANTRY FIRST EMPIRE: STRASBOURG SOLDIERS CARDBOARD FIGURINE GOUACHE BY THE WURTZ FAMILY, SECOND HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY, AROUND 1815-1848. 31156-5

Conscript, Orphan, Young Guard. Five infantrymen, H from the bottom of the base to eye level 8.5 cm.
Attached to a wooden base.

France.
First half of the 19th century.
Good condition.


PROVENANCE:
Former Wurtz-Pees collection, then Saint-Aubin, and private collection.
Monsieur Marcel Saint-Aubin, a collector who became an antiquarian between the wars. To my knowledge, no biography or article has ever been published about this personality, who is nevertheless well-known among collectors and frequently cited in the provenance of historical objects of high quality. That is why I will open my archives to shed more light on this great connoisseur:
"Mobilized during the First World War along with his brother in the infantry, the latter was killed at Verdun. Both shared the same tastes for military memorabilia; each sketched and published their drawings in the magazine 'La Giberne' before 1914.
After the war, he set himself up as an antiquarian. In 1926, he lived at 108 rue de Ménilmontant (Paris 20th), far from the preferred antique districts. His choice focused on the specialty that attracted him for a long time: military curiosities. The spark that led him to this specialty came from his first find: an officer's saber from the Consulate, his first beautiful saber; he called it his 'lucky charm' and always kept it.
The profession of antiquarian allowed Saint-Aubin to see and possess these objects he cherished for a time. A knowledgeable expert, he never made a mistake and his clients benefited from his expertise. A passionate researcher, everything he discovered in his life was surprisingly diverse. Silent and modest, he had an art and a way that left an indelible memory among the enthusiasts who knew him.
Like most military object dealers of that time, Marcel Saint-Aubin did not have a shop. He received clients in his apartment, few objects were found there and they only occupied a temporary place. Generally, like Paul Jean, he would fetch the items he wanted to sell from the neighboring room and present them most often without saying anything, with a slight smile, or if the item presented was truly exceptional, he would simply say without raising his voice 'This is top-notch...'
In June 1940, during the occupation, he left for Guingamp. He returned to Paris and resettled at the end of 1951, in the house he had acquired, 16 rue Henri Pape, in the 13th arrondissement, once again, far from the antique districts.
His love for the items he parted with was evident in the care he took with their packaging. Very handy with his hands, he perfectly protected even the most modest piece.
Marcel Saint-Aubin passed away at the age of 83, leaving with him the esteem of all who knew him, unanimously leaving behind the memory of a man with great moral values."

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
The Strasbourg soldiers are cardboard figurines, "flat" soldiers, cut from rigid cardboard. In most cases, these soldiers are drawn and then printed on sheets to more easily multiply their quantity.
In his work "Petits soldats de plomb, d'étain, de papier, de carton ... 1765-1965 - Le guide du collectionneur" published by Le Képi Rouge Paris in 1996, Christian Blondieau specifies about cardboard soldiers:
"[...] unlike paper soldiers intended more for youth, often colored in a clumsy manner, the cardboard soldier is made for adults and provides a guarantee of great uniformological precision, which will serve as the basis for our modern documentation... Why do the little soldiers from Alsace stand out? Because they were mostly made by eyewitnesses of the time or their descendants, and are often contemporary to the era they represent. During the wars of the Revolution and the Empire, the inhabitants of Strasbourg (then a garrison town) saw a large number of soldiers in multicolored uniforms passing through their streets heading to Germany.
This surge of troops, which lasted more than fifteen years, gave some the idea to 'capture' these handsome soldiers in real time. Alsatian authors agree to cite Benjamin Zix (1772-1811) as the genre's precursor. Surpassing Léopold Beyer, the German Geisler or the Austrian Klein, Alsatian Zix gives us a very realistic view of the soldiers of the time, as he, being a combatant himself, roamed the battlefields more often armed with a pencil than a rifle. He became an Army Officer-illustrator. From the peace of 1815 to the war of 1914, Strasbourg artists continued this need to draw and paint from generation to generation [...]".
During the First Empire, Strasbourg had about 30,000 inhabitants, with a permanent garrison of between 6,000 and 10,000 soldiers. This city was also a necessary passage for countless troops of the Revolution and the Grand Army heading out for campaigns beyond the Rhine. Of all these artists, and for this period, the three best known are: Thiébaut Borerst (sometimes misspelled Boersch) (1782-1824), a miller who started drawing around 1800, the nephew of painter Benjamin Zix. His collection was auctioned in Angers on March 10, 1971, and his style is probably the most refined we know. Eugène Nicollet (1802-1872) started painting his soldiers from 1817 (he was 15 years old) and continued for 55 years; his collection is kept at the Museum of Compiègne, and his style is more naïve. Wurtz, who we dedicate a specific paragraph to. Paul Schmidt, whose each figurine is annotated on the back with the soldier's name as "captured," and this collection is preserved at the Musee de l'Armée in Paris, portraying the soldiers of the National Guard of Strasbourg, among others. Other artists have also worked in a similar manner: Frédérik Schmidt (born 1796). But we can also mention Édouard Kratz (1803-1885), Schmidt Jr. (born in 1824), Théodore Carl (born in 1837)...

WURTZ-PEEZ COLLECTION (Würtz German spelling):
Wurtz began his documentation during the First Empire thanks to his friend J.P Lévêque, a former surgeon of the Grand Army who had gathered significant documentation on Napoleon's armies. He started making his figurines in 1825 with the help of his son and then Pees, his father-in-law. The production was continued by his son, who completed the Napoleon-era collection with the help of his father-in-law Mr. Pees around the time of the Second Republic (1850); some of the figurines presented here bear the date 1848 on the back of the cardboard. These figurines are of very high quality. Author Edward Ryan in his work 'Paper Soldiers: the illustrated history of printed paper armies of the 18th, 19th & 20th centuries' (Golden Age Editions, London 1995) writes "the most precise and comprehensive representation of troops from the First Empire." Each regiment is represented in all ranks and types of uniforms in an exhaustive manner, which is rare in the representations of Strasbourg soldiers. Wurtz's son, Frédéric Wurtz, likely completed the uniforms he had not personally observed from other documentary sources. Upon the fall of the Second Empire, Frédéric Wurtz refused to remain in Strasbourg under Prussian occupation and moved to Paris, where he operated a pharmacy on Boulevard de Clichy. Following his passing in 1898, most of his collection—nearly 16,000 figurines—was donated to the Musée de l’Armée on October 1, 1899, by his widow and his son, a medical major; they were displayed there in 1938 and have remained since. Expert Christian Blondieau considers Wurtz's style comparable to that of Nicollet and Kratz.