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WOOG (Raymond)
Passed by Censor.
1st Ed., 63 sheets (470x312mm) loosely housed in contemp. portfolio (grey cloth, patterned paper sides, blind). Consists of Title Page leaf; Introduction leaf; Contents List leaf, 30 portrait plates in colour (two in facsimile), 29 interleaves with rhymes & titles for the portraits, Finis leaf (a broken-backed Zeppelin about to sink in flames). No imprint [Le Havre, March 1916].
#57951
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![[HLMainPic]](booksThumbs/57951.jpg "Click on the left or right of the image for more images")
Raymond Woog (1875-1949) was a distinguished French artist of his era who studied under Gustave Moreau at the National School of Fine Arts & pursued a living as an illustrator &, notably, portrait painter. In 1915/16 he was a Lieutenant in the 24th Dragons employed as a French Liaison Officer at the British L-of-C Base Depot at le Havre, when he produced the thirty portraits contained in this collection. It appears to have been privately produced In The Field in a limited edition of 115 copies. The fine printing quality & heavy paper stock are suggestive of the involvement of a British military press: this possibility being backed up by Woog's connections including Lt.-Gen. Sir John Asser, GOC, L-of-C, & the first subject of the collection. The first twenty-three plates are of British officers of the Depot; the remaining seven are of attached French officers (including the final plate, a self portrait). Each plate except one (No. 18, Maj. Sir F.E.W. Hervey-Bathurst, the MLO) is accompanied by a decorative scroll/rhyme leaf, the amusing & evidently apposite rhymes by Lt. Charles Staniforth, APM, the decoration by Hugh Mostyn-Pritchard, Army Agent for Cox. Among the French officers is Woog's good friend Emile Herzog, better known by his nom de plume, Andre Maurois, for his 'Colonel Bramble' books based around the bemused observations of a French interpreter. Woog was the first to read these works in ms. & encouraged publication: he also provided the cover illustration for the first edition, based on Gen. Asser. In his Preface Woog states "I might make many excuses for this Album but the only one I mean to advance is that I never originally intended these sketches for publication - But my victims insisted that their friends ought to be given the chance to see the whole in book form, & feeling that I was much indebted to my sitters for their admirable patience, I gracefully consented with the modesty which is a second nature to all true artists, as everybody knows!!" Appears rare: no copies on COPAC. The one in the Municipal Archives at Le Havre (number 101 of 115 numbered copies) lists 32 'planches', but has not been compared & presumably they have included the Title & Finis leaves. Please note: two col. plates lacking & provided in facsimile from the only other copy known to me, which is in a private collection & is, in regards to the contents, identical to this one. See illustrations on our website.
£500
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