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Home > Les Uniformes des Guerres Napoleoniennes > Petard, Les Uniformes des Guerres Napoleoniennes

Petard, Les Uniformes des Guerres Napoleoniennes

Petard, Les Uniformes des Guerres Napoleoniennes, Coppens, Courcelle, Petard, and Lordey, Les Uniformes des Guerres Napoleoniennes.
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Item #: Petard-01
Coppens, Courcelle, Petard, and Lordey, Les Uniformes des Guerres Napoleoniennes.
Editions Quatour, Entremont le Vieux, 1997
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Price: $299.00
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This work is on the uniforms of the Napoleonic period and is titled: Les Uniformes des Guerres Napoleoniennes. Published in 1997 by Editions Quatour at a price of €396.  It is a limited edition of 990 copies. This is number 471. It is 2 Volumes of 190 and 185 pages, hardcovers in slipcase, by Bernard Coppens, Patrice Courcelle, Daniel Lordey, and Michel Petard, four of the best uniformologists and illustrators in the field. 330 X 240cm.

Volume one covers the uniforms of French and allied armies, and volume two covers the armies of the nations allied against Napoleon. 

The condition is as shown in the product images which are photographs of the actual book. The volumes are "as new". The slipcase cover is in good condition but has some light scuff marks by the lower left corner and the corner itself is partially split, probably from being mishandled during shipping (see photo #3 in the gallery).

A personal confession of sorts.  I was attracted to “Les Uniformes des Guerres Napoleoniennes” because of the plates by Michel Petard that are in it, but through an enormous screw up on my part, I wound up buying two copies of the book. I’m still embarrassed by this, but it turns into a good buying opportunity for you.  I clearly have no need for two copies of this high quality limited edition work and to have any chance of selling it, I have to offer it at a considerable discount. That is why I mention the original publication price, and as of 2/15/2022 there is a copy for sale on AbeBooks for $578. So... you do the math!

Michel Petard

Born in Nantes in November 1944, Michel Petard took an early interest in history and in archeology in general, as well as ancient weapons. After 6 years study at the Beaux-Arts in Nantes, he produced a thesis on Nantes gunsmiths in the 18th century, research which brought him into contact with Christian Aries, a specialist in that area of study.

He then collaborated on the great work of the latter "Armes Blanches Militaires Francaises" as a draftsman, while studying weapons, uniforms and their technologies. He published in 1973 a study on the manufacture of bladed weapons in the 18th century in addition to his work with Christian Aries.

In 1974, he met Jean Boudriot who entrusted him with the illustration of the uniforms and construction of the ships for his work: “Le Vaisseau de 74 Canons”. In the meantime, he introduced him to J. Buigne who hired him as a uniformologist author in the “Gazette des Uniformes”, where, beginning in 1974, he regularly created detailed analyses of the uniforms and equipment of various regiments in the French army during the period from 1745 to 1815. The illustrations for these articles were then collected and published as “de Fontenoy a Waterloo” in 1995.  

In 1979, he met Michel Sapin-Lignieres, through the intermediary of C. Aries, who entrusted him, as co-author, with the chapter on weapons and uniforms in his book “Les troupes legeres de l’ancien regime".

Since the beginning of 1980, he has devoted himself to R. Chartrand's study of colonial troops, where he is again working with the description and illustration of the uniforms of the period.

While he usually specializes in military costumes from the 17th century to the 1st Empire, recently he has been working on the medieval period.
 
Patrice Courcelle

Born in the north of France, Patrice Courcelle pursued classical studies and received a short training at the Beaux-Arts in Lille before leaving to receive direct instruction from several artists on historical art and its requirements.
 
Tutored by the Parisian master Eugène Lelièpvre, Courcelle became the heir to the tradition established by the military painters of Louis XIV and XV. As both an artist and a historian, his documentary plates, scholarly illustrations, and paintings, based on a particularly advanced form of historical documentation that takes into account the accuracy of circumstances, objects, characters and uniforms, have led him to become skilled not just in rendering detail accurately, but in capturing the feeling of soldiers on campaign. His works are published by specialist companies in Belgium, France, and Britain and he has an avid readership ranging from historians, to enthusiasts and military modellers. His original paintings sell worldwide and are exhibited in prestigious venues such as the French Military Academy. In 2013, the Royal Army and Military Museum in Brussels held a 6-month retrospective exhibition of his artwork, and in 2019, the Memorial 1815 Museum in Waterloo showed some of his work in their temporary exhibition on Blücher and Napoleon.

Today, Patrice Courcelle is the author and illustrator of countless articles, more than 80 books devoted to military history, mainly revolutionary and Napoleonic, including more than 25 on the Battle of Waterloo alone.

Historical Art:
Historical Art has little in common with ordinary illustration. It is in line with the "History Painting" of past centuries and consists of making documentary plates or works of art based on rigorous historical documentation where the accuracy of circumstances, places, sets, objects, characters and their costumes, etc. are taken into account.
 
New interest is now occurring in this increasingly demanding discipline, which is also regaining its stature among pure art lovers. Many are called but very few are elected in this difficult medium that requires considerable documentation and advanced special knowledge combined with a certain artistic talent.
 
Barely a dozen artist-historians worthy of the name are currently active. Internationally recognized by his peers, specialists and amateurs, Patrice Courcelle is among them.

Bibliography:
He has illustrated numerous books in the Osprey “Men-at-Arms” series on the French and Allied armies of the Napoleonic Wars. 
Along with Jack Girbal, he illustrated F-G Hourtoulle's excellent study, “Soldiers and Uniforms of the Napoleonic Wars”.
He is one of four illustrators, along with Bernard Coppens, Daniel Lordey, and Michel Petard, who contributed illustrations to the magnificent Editions Quatour publication “Les Uniformes des Guerres Napoleoniennes”, of which I have a copy for sale on this site.
 
Bernard Coppens

Bernard Coppens, researcher, historical illustrator, and uniformologist for institutions like the National Military Museum of the Netherlands, devoted his life to the study of the period 1789-1815. He published numerous articles and books on this period including several studies on the Battle of Waterloo. The passion he devoted throughout his life to researching original documents and studying sources led him to take a different look at events and to hunt down inaccuracies and falsehoods.

Starting from the observation that history is never neutral, particularly that of the Napoleonic era (it was Buonaparte who said that "History is a series of lies on which we agree"), Bernard Coppens, all his life, was convinced of the need to rid history of the errors introduced in the 19th and 20th centuries.

 

This is a two volume work with plates by Bernard Coppens, Patrice Courcelle, Daniel Lordey, and Michel Petard, four of the best uniformologists and illustrators in the field. It was published in 1997 by Editions Quatour.

Volume I: TROUPES FRANCAISES, TROUPES ALLIEES: 
166 plates including 15 weapons plates: L’etat Major, La Garde Imperiale, L’Infanterie de la Ligne, La Cavalerie, L’Artillerie, Le Genie, Le Train, La Gendarmerie, La Garde Nationale, La Garde de Paris, Les Troupes Corses, Les Compagnies de Reserve, Le Service de Sante, Les Ecoles Militaires, Les Troupes Suisses et Les Regiments Etrangersm Les Troupes de Marine, Les Troupes Alliees. 

Volume II: TROUPES ETRANGERES: 157 plates including numerous plates showing regimental distinctions: L’Armee Anglaise, L’Armee Autrichienne, L’Armee Prussienne, L’Armee Russe, L’Armee Espagnole, L’Armee Portugaise, L’Armee Suedoise, L’Armee Hollando-Belge, Hanovre et Brunswick.

Editions Quatour
All the publications are bound in oriental silk or full leather, printed in large format (245 cm x 320 cm) in a box, heavy weight and all in color, in 300 or 600 copies, all numbered by hand, very richly illustrated with rare and even previously unpublished iconography, and written by the best historians of the Empire.
 
These works, once out of print, are never republished. Only quasi-artisanal work can claim this high-value aesthetic quality, essential for documenting and illustrating the epic of Napoleon.

Founded in 1994, the Quatuor Editions have always had the essential task of highlighting Napoleonic history, mainly from the point of view of military campaigns, to explain the fundamental causes of the Napoleonic wars, and to describe all the aspects of this era, both strategic and tactical, by appealing to combatants, witnesses, historians, and painters.


The Quatour mission in their own words:
It has always seemed important to document this period, beginning in 1796 in the Piedmontese hills and the rich Lombard plains and ending in the stifling heat of June 1815 at Waterloo, with available and new imagery and historical narrative. 

It was not possible to highlight this epic, full of noise and fury and absolutely exceptional in the history of France, without illustrating it in the most magnificent way with the help of the greatest painters, illustrators, and historians, contemporary of that time or not.