12. Abraham Bosse
(1602-1676)

Le Pâtissier

(click on image to print)
Bosse, Le Pâtissier

Le Pâtissier

Etching and engraving, ca. 1635, from Les Métiers, 243 x 332 mm., Blum 1047, Duplessis 1397. Fine impression on laid paper trimmed outside the frame borderline but lacking the bottom part of the frame, the text complete; a few pinholes and two tiny ink spots. A pâtissier in France is something more than just a baker of cakes and cookies, as shown in this very charming print. The rabbits and hams, hanging from hooks, and the vegetables on the shelf, show that he also supplies savory meat pies, custards, vegetable darioles, croquettes and everything that employs a baked crust. The legend reports that his shop charms, in a thousand ways, the girls, the little boys, the servants and the nurses. No mention of the lords and ladies, for they would not be caught going into a shop. But just look what they missed.