9th REGIMENT OF HUSSARS FIRST EMPIRE: SOLDIERS FROM STRASBOURG CARDBOARD FIGURINE GOUACHE PAINTED BY THE WURTZ FAMILY, SECOND HALF OF THE 19th CENTURY, AROUND 1815-1848. Inventory number: 31156-32

9th HUSSARS REGIMENT FIRST EMPIRE: STRASBOURG SOLDIERS CARDBOARD FIGURINE painted by the WURTZ family, second half of the 19th century, circa 1815-1848. 31156-32

Three horsemen, 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 antiquarian between the two world wars. To my knowledge, no biography or article has ever been published about this personality who is nevertheless known to collectors and frequently mentioned in the provenance of historical objects, often of great quality. That is why I will 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. They both shared the same taste for military memorabilia; both drew and published their drawings in the magazine 'La Giberne' before 1914.
After the war, he set up as an antiquarian. In 1926, he lived at 108 rue de Ménilmontant (Paris 20th), far removed from the preferred areas of antique dealers. 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 era, his first beautiful saber; he called it his 'lucky charm' and always kept it.
The profession of an antique dealer allowed Saint-Aubin to see and possess these much-appreciated objects for some time. A true connoisseur, he never made mistakes, and his clients benefited from his expertise. A passionate researcher, everything he discovered in his life was amazingly varied. Silent and modest, he had an art and a manner that left an unforgettable memory among the enthusiasts who knew him.
Like most military object merchants of that time, Marcel Saint-Aubin did not have a store. He received clients in his apartment, where few objects were found, and they only took a temporary place. Generally, like Paul Jean, he would fetch the objects he wanted to sell from the neighboring room and often presented them without saying anything, with a slight smile, or if the object 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 away from the antique dealers' district.
His love for the objects he parted with was reflected even in the care he took in packaging them. Very handy with his hands, he perfectly protected even the most modest item.
Marcel Saint-Aubin died at the age of 83, taking with him the esteem of all who knew him, leaving behind the memory of a man with great moral values."

HISTORICAL:
The soldiers of Strasbourg 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 numbers.
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 that for cardboard soldiers:
"[...] unlike paper soldiers intended more for youth, often colored in a clumsy way, the cardboard soldier is made for adults and guarantees a high level of uniformological precision, which serves as the basis for our modern documentation...
Why do the little soldiers of Alsace hold a reference? 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 residents of Strasbourg (then a garrison town) saw a large number of soldiers with multicolored uniforms passing through their streets heading to fight in Germany.
This influx of troops, lasting over fifteen years, gave some the idea to 'sketch' these beautiful soldiers on the spot.
Alsace authors agree in citing Benjamin Zix (1772-1811) as the genre's pioneer. Preceding Léopold Beyer, the German Geisler, or the Austrian Klein, the Alsatian Zix gives us a very realistic view of the soldiers of the time, as he, being a fighter himself, traversed the battlefields more often armed with a pencil than a rifle. He became an Army Officer draftsman.
From the peace of 1815 to the war of 1914, Strasbourg artists continued this need to draw and paint from generation to generation [...]."
Under the First Empire, Strasbourg had about 30,000 inhabitants, with a permanent garrison ranging from 6,000 to 10,000 soldiers, but this city also saw countless troops of the Revolution and the Grand Army passing through on their way to campaigns across the Rhine.
Of all these artists, and for this period, the three most well-known are: Thiébaut Borerst (mistakenly spelled Boersch) (1782-1824), a baker who started drawing around 1800, a nephew of the painter Benjamin Zix, his collection was auctioned in Angers on March 10, 1971, and his style is probably the most developed we know. Eugène Nicollet (1802-1872), who painted his soldiers from 1817 (he was 15 years old) for 55 years, his collection is kept at the Compiègne Museum, his style is more naive. Wurtz, to whom we dedicate a specific paragraph. Paul Schmidt, whose each figurine is labeled on the back with the soldier's name as "sketched," this collection is kept at the Army Museum in Paris and has the characteristic of representing the soldiers of the National Guard of Strasbourg, among others.
Other artists have also worked in the same way: 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 COLLECTION (Würtz German spelling):
Wurtz began his documentation under the First Empire thanks to his friend J.P LÉvêque, a former surgeon of the Grand Army who had gathered a significant documentation on Napoleon's armies. He started making his figurines from 1825 with the help of his son and then with Pees, his father-in-law. The production was continued by the son who completed his collection with the help of his father-in-law, Mr. Pees, with "Napoleonic" figures under the Second Republic (1850), some of the figurines we present have 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 the troops of the First Empire." Each regiment is represented in all grades and types of uniforms in an exhaustive manner, which is rare in representations of Strasbourg soldiers.
Mr. Wurtz's son, Frédéric Wurtz, probably filled in the uniforms he did not personally observe using other documentary sources.
Frédéric Wurtz, at the fall of the Second Empire, refused to stay in Strasbourg under Prussian occupation and moved to Paris, where he ran a pharmacy on Boulevard de Clichy. Following his death in 1898, most of his collection - nearly 16,000 figurines - was donated to the Army Museum on October 1, 1899, by his widow and his son, a major medical officer; they were exhibited in 1938 and have remained there since.
The expert specialist Christian Blondieau judges Wurtz's style comparable to that of Nicollet and Kratz.