French Candy Wrappers

These wrappers, ca. 1830-1855, have illustrations depicting such subjects as transportation, scenery, buildings, animals, and historical and fictional people. Apparently printers' proofs, some sheets are uncut and include labels with catalog numbers on them. French candy wrappers of this type were popular during the first half of the 1800s for packaging and entertainment. The wrapper imagery--ranging from historicism to exoticism to courtship--reflects the vast scope of visual culture that was popular in France during the 1800s. These wrappers were likely used by stationers to show confectioners what types of wrappers could be purchased to package their products. Some were even purchased to create makeshift toys. 
 
Parisian printers' and stationers' names, including Léger-Pomel, T. Mayer, and Dondey-Dupré, appear on the wrappers. Sometime during the first quarter of the 1800s, T. Mayer succeeded Léger-Pomel. In Bibliographie de la France (Paris: Pillet, 1852), Mayer was identified as a "Fancy Paper Manufacturer" who sold "Fancy papers, specimens of engraving and lithography, fans, pasteboard, and sweetmeat envelopes." Three artists could be identified as being responsible for some of the wrapper imagery: Frédéric Sorrieu (1807-?), a lithographer; Noël-Eugène Sotain (1816-1875), an engraver; and Henry Valentin (1820-1855), an illustrator.