IMPERIAL GUARD FIRST EMPIRE: LANCERS AND GENDARMES OF THE KING'S BODYGUARD: SOLDIERS OF STRASBOURG CARDBOARD FIGURINE PAINDED IN GOUACHE BY THE WURTZ FAMILY, SECOND THIRD OF THE 19TH CENTURY, AROUND 1815-1848. 31156-20

IMPERIAL GUARD FIRST EMPIRE: LANCERS AND ORDERLY GENDARMES: STRASBOURG SOLDIERS FIGURINE MADE OF GOUACHE PAINTED CARDBOARD by the WURTZ family, second half of the 19th century, around 1815-1848. 31156-20

Six cavalrymen, H from the bottom of the base to eye level 10.5 cm.
Mounted on a wooden base.

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

PROVENANCE:
Former Wurtz-Pees collection, then Saint-Aubin, and private collection.
Mr. Marcel Saint-Aubin was a collector who became an antique dealer between the wars. To my knowledge, no biography or article has ever been published about this personality, who is nevertheless known to collectors and often cited in the provenance of historical objects of great quality. I will therefore open my archives to better make known this great connoisseur:
"Mobilized during the First World War along with his brother in the infantry, the latter was killed at Verdun. Both shared a passion for military memorabilia; both drew and published their drawings in the magazine 'La Giberne' before 1914.
After the war, he settled as an antique dealer. In 1926, he lived at 108 rue de Ménilmontant (Paris 20th arrondissement), well outside the preferred neighborhoods of antique dealers. His choice focused on the specialty that had attracted him for a long time: military curiosity. 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 had always kept it.
The profession of antique dealer allowed Saint-Aubin to see and possess these cherished objects for a while. A discerning connoisseur, he never made a mistake, and his clients benefited from his expertise. As a passionate researcher, everything he discovered in his life was surprisingly varied. Quiet and modest, he had an art and a manner that left an indelible memory among the amateurs who knew him.
Like most dealers of military objects of that time, Marcel Saint-Aubin did not have a shop. He received clients in his apartment, where few objects were found and they only held a temporary place. Generally, like Paul Jean, he would fetch the objects he wanted to sell from the neighboring room and would present them often without saying anything, with a slight smile, or if the presented object was truly exceptional, he would simply say without raising his voice 'That's the real deal…'.
In June 1940, during the occupation, he left for Guingamp. He returned to Paris and resettled in late 1951, in the house he had acquired at 16 rue Henri Pape, in the 13th arrondissement, once again, far from the antique dealers’ district.
His love for the objects he parted with was evident even in the care he took in their packaging. Very skillful with his hands, he perfectly protected even the most modest piece.
Marcel Saint-Aubin passed away at the age of 83, taking with him the esteem of all who knew him, leaving behind the memory of a man of great moral values."

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
The soldiers of Strasbourg are cardboard figurines, "flat" soldiers, cut from rigid cardboard. In most cases, these soldiers are drawn and then printed in sheets to easily multiply their number.
Christian Blondieau in his work "Little soldiers of lead, tin, paper, cardboard ... 1765-1965 - The collector's guide," Editions Le Képi Rouge Paris 1996, specifies for cardboard soldiers:
"[…] contrary to paper soldiers intended more for youth, often colored in a clumsy manner, the cardboard soldier is made for adults and guarantees great uniformological precision, which serves as a basis for our modern documentation... Why do the little soldiers of Alsace set the standard? Because they were mostly created 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 residents of Strasbourg (then a garrison town) saw a large number of soldiers with colorful uniforms passing through their city on their way to fight in Germany. This influx of troops, spanning more than fifteen years, gave some the idea to 'sketch' these beautiful soldiers on the spot. Alsatian authors agree to cite Benjamin Zix (1772-1811) as the genre's pioneer. Anticipating Léopold Beyer, the German Geisler, or the Austrian Klein, the Alsatian Zix gives us a very realistic aspect of the soldiers of the time, as he himself, being a combatant, roamed the battlefields more often armed with a pencil than a rifle. He became an Army Officer draftsman. From the peace of 1815 to the 1914 war, the Strasbourgeois artists continued this need to draw and paint from generation to generation […]"
During the First Empire, Strasbourg had around 30,000 inhabitants, with a permanent garrison of 6,000 to 10,000 soldiers. This city was also the obligatory passage for countless troops of the Revolution and the Grand Army heading to campaigns across the Rhine.
Among all these artists, and for this period, the three most well-known are: Thiébaut Borerst (mistakenly spelled Boersch) (1782-1824), a miller who began drawing around 1800, a nephew of the painter Benjamin Zix, whose collection was auctioned off in Angers on March 10, 1971, with his style probably being the most refined that we know of. Eugène Nicollet (1802-1872), who began painting his soldiers as early as 1817 (at the age of 15) and continued for 55 years, with his collection kept at the Compiègne Museum, and his style being more naive. Wurtz, to whom we dedicate a special paragraph. Paul Schmidt, whose each figurine is signed on the back with the name of the soldier as "sketched," with his collection preserved at the Musée de l'Armée in Paris depicting the National Guard soldiers of Strasbourg, among others. Other artists also worked in a similar manner: Frédérik Schmidt (born in 1796). But we can also mention Édouard Kratz (1803-1885), Schmidt's son (born in 1824), Théodore Carl (born in 1837)…

WURTZ-PEEZ (Würtz in German spelling) COLLECTION:
Wurtz started documenting under 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 began making his figurines in 1825 with the help of his son and later with Pees, his father-in-law. The production was continued by the son, who completed his "Napoleonic" collection under the Second Republic (1850), with some of the figurines we present having the date 1848 on the back of the cardboard. These figurines are of very high quality. In Edward Ryan's book "Paper Soldiers: The Illustrated History of Printed Paper Armies of the 18th, 19th & 20th Centuries" (Golden Age Editions, London 1995), it is mentioned that they are "the most precise and complete representation of the troops of the First Empire." Each regiment is represented in all ranks and uniform types exhaustively, which is rare in the representations of Strasbourg soldiers. The son of Mr. Wurtz, Frédéric Wurtz, likely completed the uniforms he had not personally observed from other documentary sources.
Following the fall of the Second Empire, Frédéric Wurtz refused to stay in Strasbourg under Prussian occupation and moved to Paris, where he ran a pharmacy on Boulevard de Clichy. After his death 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 chief medical officer; they were exhibited in 1938 and have remained there since. Specialized expert Christian Blondieau regards Wurtz's style as comparable to that of Nicollet and Kratz.