Monsieur Boullu The Stonemason – Figurines Tintin La Collection Officielle – 35 – Monsieur Boullu Le Marbrier

Author: Hergé & Editions Moulinsart
Price: £50.00
Publisher: Editions Moulinsart
Publication date: 2013
Format: Original pictorial boards with passport and figurine
Condition: In new condition
Illustrations: Illustrated throughout

Description:

Original pictorial boards. Includes passport loosely inserted. Text in French. Includes the accompanying figurine. One from the collection of 111 books and figurines. Figurine is unopened in original packaging. New.

Monsieur Boullu: A Short Biography

Monsieur Boullu is a minor yet memorable character in Hergé’s The Adventures of Tintin, appearing briefly in The Seven Crystal Balls. Though his role is small, it demonstrates Hergé’s gift for creating vivid, humorous portraits of everyday people. Boullu’s moment on the page brings a note of macabre comedy to one of Tintin’s darkest and most mysterious adventures.

Character Profile

Monsieur Boullu is introduced as a marbrier — a marble worker or stonemason — who specialises in making gravestones and funerary monuments. His physical appearance reflects his trade and temperament: stout, middle-aged, and slightly pompous, with the manner of a man who takes great pride in his craft. Hergé draws him with expressive features and an air of self-importance, qualities typical of the small-town tradesmen and bureaucrats who populate Tintin’s world.

He is polite and businesslike, yet his occupation gives his scenes a darkly comic undertone. In true Hergé fashion, even a stonemason becomes a vehicle for humour and atmosphere.

Role in The Seven Crystal Balls

Monsieur Boullu’s brief appearance occurs early in The Seven Crystal Balls, when Tintin and Captain Haddock are investigating a series of mysterious comas afflicting members of an archaeological expedition. The mood of the story is eerie, and Hergé cleverly offsets the tension with moments of domestic or situational comedy — one of which involves Boullu.

Captain Haddock, recently settled at Marlinspike Hall, encounters Monsieur Boullu while ordering a new headstone for the family tomb. The encounter quickly becomes farcical when Boullu, misunderstanding Haddock’s fiery temperament and gloomy remarks, assumes that the Captain is planning ahead for his own grave.

The scene exemplifies Hergé’s balance between suspense and wit. It also humanises Haddock, showing his frustration with ordinary people as well as his habit of attracting absurd misunderstandings.

Personality and Symbolism

Monsieur Boullu is a minor but well-observed caricature of a particular kind of tradesman — proud of his work, a little self-important, and oblivious to the wider drama unfolding around him. Hergé often used such characters to ground his stories in familiar human comedy, offering readers a moment of relief from the larger narrative tension.

As a stonemason, Boullu’s trade symbolises mortality — an appropriate reminder in a story preoccupied with ancient curses, unexplained illness, and the fragility of human life. Yet Hergé treats him lightly, ensuring the tone remains comic rather than grim.

Thematic Relevance

Although he appears only once, Boullu contributes to the atmosphere of The Seven Crystal Balls in several ways:

• Comic contrast: His mundane concerns contrast with the supernatural mystery surrounding the expedition to Peru.
• Realism: His inclusion reinforces Hergé’s eye for social detail, showing that Tintin’s world, though extraordinary, remains rooted in recognisable human experience.
• Tone management: The humour of the Boullu scene prevents the story from becoming unrelentingly dark, sustaining the balance between suspense and levity that defines the Tintin series.

Legacy

Monsieur Boullu remains one of Tintin’s minor comic figures — a fleeting but distinctive presence whose name and profession stick in the reader’s memory. His brief exchange with Captain Haddock encapsulates Hergé’s mastery of timing, dialogue, and irony.

Through characters like Boullu, Hergé demonstrated that even the smallest roles could contribute to the depth and realism of Tintin’s universe. The marbrier of Marlinspike may never leave his workshop, but in a few perfectly drawn panels, he joins the long list of ordinary people who make Tintin’s extraordinary world feel vividly alive.

Why Buy from Us?

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• Authenticity and Provenance: Each item is meticulously researched and verified for authenticity and collation.
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Cataloguer: Daniel Hornsey

Daniel Hornsey has specialised in fine and rare books, ephemera, and collectors’ editions for over thirty years. As a long-standing member of the antiquarian book trade, he has advised private collectors, curated catalogues, and sourced works for leading dealers, libraries and institutions across the world.

Hornseys’ exhibit regularly at book and map fairs in London and throughout the UK and are members of the Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association, the PBFA.

His fascination with Hergé’s work — especially ‘The Adventures of Tintin’ — began in childhood. Daniel recalls reading Tintin in original European editions and quickly recognising that these were not merely children’s books, but finely illustrated narratives crafted with artistic depth and wit.

As noted by the Musée Hergé in Louvain-la-Neuve, Hergé’s ‘ligne claire’ style has influenced generations of European comic artists and his original drawings and paintings command very high prices with his painting of ‘The Blue Lotus’ jar fetching £2.8m at auction in 2021.

By presenting these works through Hornseys’, he hopes to contribute to the continued appreciation of one of the 20th century’s most influential illustrators, helping new generations discover the artistry and legacy of Hergé.