Cover for the second year of L'Estampe originale

Parisian art critic Roger Marx, an advisor on L'Estampe originale, faithfully supported the artists in his hometown of Nancy. That is undoubtedly how Nancy native Camille Martin came to create the annual L'Estampe originale album cover for 1894. Two years earlier, he had exhibited his sumptuous leather bookbindings in Paris. In this Art Nouveau lithograph, tendrils encircle the wheel of a green etching press, perhaps intending to activate the roller and send the cascading leaves through the press. The pendulous gourds at left were an Asian symbol of fecundity, signaling an auspicious beginning to L'Estampe originale's second year.