Collection: Gascogne et Landes

Félix Arnaudin spent his life photographing and transcribing a disappearing Grande Lande, that of shepherds on stilts and heathlands before the massive afforestation of the 19th century.Au temps des échasses, Félix Arnaudinbrings together one hundred photographs and a frontispiece portrait, printed in 310 numbered copies on Madagascar-Lafuma-Navarre, the only printing of the work. A complete copy of its hundred plates is checked plate by plate before purchase, as an incomplete piece loses much of its documentary value. Around this peak, the Gascon collection covers local history (chronicles of Pau, municipal monographs of Béarn), eyewitness accounts (J. H. Chapelle's "Quelques têtes du Pont-Long", dated Pau 1918) and regionalist erudition, with texts in Gascon such as "Reclams de Biarn e Gascougne". This collection is part of our Basque Country and Southwestsection. For the purely Béarnais and Pyrenean aspect, see Béarn and Pyrenees; for the Basque language and traditions, the Basque language and traditions. Each printing justification is compared to the physical copy before publication of the notice.

A photographer and folklorist born in 1844 in the Landes region, he documented the Grande Lande before its forest transformation. His prints and original editions are rare and sought after by regionalist collectors.

Both coexist in the collection. Some titles, such as the collections published in Pau at the beginning of the 20th century, are written in Gascon and are aimed at an informed regionalist readership.

Send us the list of titles and editions. We can travel for significant collections and compare each item with our collection before making a decision.