11th HUSSARS REGIMENT FIRST FRENCH EMPIRE: STRASBOURG SOLDIERS CARDBOARD FIGURINE painted in gouache by the WURTZ family, second half of the 19th century, around 1815-1848. Inventory number 31156-34.

11th REGIMENT OF HUSSARS FIRST EMPIRE: STRASBOURG SOLDIERS CARDBOARD FIGURINE painted by the WURTZ family, second half of the 19th century, around 1815-1848. 31156-34

Two horsemen, H from the base of the stand to eye level 10.5 cm.
Glued on a wooden stand.

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 known to collectors and often cited in the provenance of historically significant objects. That's why I will open my archives to better introduce this great connoisseur:
"Called up during the First World War along with his brother in the infantry, the latter was killed at Verdun. Both shared the same passion for military memorabilia; both drew 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 typical neighborhoods of antiquarians. His choice focused on the specialty that attracted him for a long time: military curiosities. The spark that directed him toward this specialty came from his first find: a light cavalry officer's saber from the Consulate period, his first beautiful sword; he called it his 'lucky charm' and always kept it.
The profession of antiquarian allowed Saint-Aubin to see and possess these cherished objects for some time. A keen connoisseur, he never made mistakes, and his clients benefited from his knowledge. A passionate researcher, everything he discovered in his life was surprisingly varied. Silent and modest, he had an art and a manner that left an indelible memory among the enthusiasts who knew him.
Like most military item dealers of that time, Marcel Saint-Aubin didn't have a shop. He received visitors in his apartment, where few items were displayed, taking up temporary space. Usually, like Paul Jean, he would fetch the items he wanted to sell from the neighboring room and often presented them without saying anything, with a slight smile, or if the item 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 at 16 rue Henri Pape, in the 13th arrondissement, once again far from the antiques district.
His love for the items he parted with showed in the care he took with their packaging. Very skilled with his hands, he perfectly protected even the humblest piece.
Marcel Saint-Aubin passed away at the age of 83, leaving with him the esteem of all who knew him, unanimously remembered as a man of great moral values."

HISTORICAL:
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 multiply their numbers more easily.
Christian Blondieau in his book "Little soldiers of lead, tin, paper, cardboard... 1765-1965 - The collector's guide" Editions Le Képi Rouge Paris 1996, specifies for cardboard soldiers:
"[...] unlike paper soldiers intended more for youth, often clumsily colored, the cardboard soldier is created for adults and provides a guarantee of great uniformological precision, which serves as the basis for our modern documentation...
Why do the little soldiers from Alsace stand out? Because in the majority of cases, they were 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 (a garrison town at the time) saw a large number of soldiers in multicolored uniforms passing through the streets as they headed to battle in Germany.
This influx of troops, which lasted more than fifteen years, inspired some to capture these handsome soldiers on paper.
Alsace authors unanimously cite Benjamin Zix (1772-1811) as the genre's precursor. Leading over Léopold Beyer, the German Geisler or the Austrian Klein, the Alsatian Zix provides a very realistic view of the soldiers of the time, having fought himself, he traversed 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, Alsatian artists from generation to generation continued this need to draw and paint[...]".
During the First Empire, Strasbourg had around 30,000 inhabitants, with a permanent garrison of between 6,000 and 10,000 soldiers. The city was also a mandatory stop for innumerable troops from the Revolution and the Grande Armée 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 baker who started drawing around 1800, nephew of the painter Benjamin Zix, his collection was auctioned in Angers on March 10, 1971, and his style is probably the most accomplished. Eugène Nicollet (1802-1872) who painted soldiers from 1817 (at the age of 15) over 55 years, his collection is kept at the Museum of Compiègne, his style is more naive. Wurtz, to whom we dedicate a specific paragraph. Paul Schmidt, whose each figurine is annotated on the back with the name of the depicted soldier, this collection is preserved at the Museum of the Army in Paris and features soldiers from the National Guard of Strasbourg, among others.
Other artists 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 (German spelling Würtz):
Wurtz began his documentation under the First Empire thanks to his friend J.P LÉvêque, a former surgeon of the Grande Armée who had gathered important 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 continued under his son, who completed his collection with the assistance of his father-in-law producing "Napoleonic" figurines during 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. Edward Ryan in his book "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 of the First Empire." Each regiment is depicted in all ranks and types of uniforms exhaustively, which is rare in the representations of Strasbourg soldiers.
Frédéric Wurtz, son of Mr. Wurtz, likely filled in the uniforms he did not observe himself based on other documentary sources. After the fall of the Second Empire, Frédéric Wurtz refused to stay in Strasbourg under Prussian occupation and moved to Paris on Boulevard de Clichy, where he ran a pharmacy. Following 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 senior medical officer; they were exhibited there in 1938 and have been there ever since.
Specialist expert Christian Blondieau compares the style of Wurtz to that of Nicollet and Kratz.