SPARE BED AT THE “CROCODILE”

Original 9 3/8 inch x 6 1/4 inch Engraving titled THE SPARE BED AT THE “CROCODILE”.

”Four adventurous knights, in the romance of “Croquemitaine”, arrive after dark at a broken-down, ominous-looking inn, with the sign of the “Crocodile”. It is situated in a desolate country, and kept by a murderous scoundrel, half Spaniard and half Moor, named Ali Pepe, who shows one of the knights to what he calls the best bedroom. This proves to be a hideous, rotten chamber, filled with cobwebs, enormous spiders, beetles, snakes, and reptiles – in short, just the kind of room M. Doré has represented with such squalid and ghastly picturesqueness.”

Illustration by Gustave Doré (1832 – 1883). The most popular and successful French book illustrator of the middle of the 19th century. Doré became widely known for his illustrations to such books as Danté’s Inferno (1861), Don Quixote (1862), and the Bible (1866), and he helped to give European currency to the illustrated book of large format. He was so prolific that at one time he employed more than forty wood engravers. His work is characterized by an eclectic mix of Michelangelesque nudes, northern traditions of sublime landscape, and a highly spirited love of the grotesque and bizarre.

Engraved by Auguste Trichon (1814 – 1898). A French woodcutter.

Ernest-Louis-Victor-Jules L’Epine , also called Ernest Manuel L’Épine or more simply Ernest L’Épine was a French writer and playwright born in Paris on September 12, 1826 and died in Paris on February 4, 1893.

Illustration from Ernest-Louis-Victor-Jules L’Epine’s “The Days of Chivalry, Or, The Legend of Croquemitaine” published and illustrated by Doré in 1870.

This edition from Cassell’s ‘Doré Gallery’ published in 1885.

Page size 12 1/4 inch x 9 1/8 inch

The engraving is in very good condition. Reverse side blank.