Papiers dominotés

The images from the 18th century, taken in Chartres, Orléans, Mans or other suburb places, have their place in the art and popular traditions.

Everybody knows La folie des hommes ou le monde à l’envers, Le vrai portrait du Juif errant, l’Histoire de l’enfant prodigue, roughly drawn and deeply colored.
These pictures were saved by amateurs, published and shown to many places.
The people who produced these photos belonged to a company which engraved and edited at the same time patterned wallpaper. The origin of the word “papiers dominotés” is obscure and the techniques of engraving that it covers is still unsure because people used to engrave on wooden boards, as well as on religious or historical images, or decorative papers.