ABÉCÉDAIRE et SILLABAIRE ou Premiers Éléments de la lecture avec jolies historiettes et beaucoup de gravures

[JUVENILE] [EDUCATION] [ABECEDARIAN] [FRENCH LANGUAGE]. 16mo (6 ¾" x 4 ½" ); [6], [1]-48pp; color printed gray paper over board, title surrounded by a floral wreath on the front, a decorative lozenge in white within two fillets on rear; bookseller's ticket on front pastedown "Lépin Gacé, (Orne)" advertising bookbinding, stationery, book selling; hand-colored, engraved fp and decorated title page; 6 unpaginated plates, each with 4 numbered, hand-colored illustrations featuring people at daily tasks, the last page features 5 illustrations; alphabets and text follow with an additional 7 hand-colored engraved plates; chipping of spine and board edges, glue burns to eps, ffep trimmed at fore-edge, light offsetting and a few stray ink blots; very good minus.

OCLC locates one copy in Germany at the Wissenschaftliche Stadtbibliothek Mainz.

A child's introduction to the French language with examples of alphabet letters in block and script form, punctuation and accent marks, the concept of word syllables, Roman and Arabic numbering, important phrases and maxims ie.: "Mon cher enfant!", followed by seven moralistic stories each with an illustrated plate.

While no instructions are given for the small, numbered illustrations enclosed in the grids, each one represents one letter of the 25 letters of the French alphabet and pictures a child at play or in an activity.

Printed by the noted printer, Josef Scholz, in the city known in the 19th century as Mayence, now known as Mainz, Germany. The Scholz company was founded in Wiesbaden in 1793 and relocated to Mayence in 1829, it continued publishing until 1984 when it was acquired by Schneiderbuch Verlag. The company was known for publishing children's picture books, board games, and paper theaters. Mayence is notable as the site of the invention of the movable-type printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century. (Landeshauptstadt Mainz-Libraries of the city of Mainz) (British Museum)