Lot n° 44
Estimation :
60000 - 70000
EUR
Result without fees
Result
: 84 000EUR
WATTEAU ANTOINE. - Lot 44
WATTEAU ANTOINE.
L'oeuvre... engraved according to his original paintings & drawings drawn from the royal cabinet & the most curious of Europe by the care of M. de Jullienne. Paris, Jullienne, [1735].
2 vol. broadsides, 47 x 62,5cm, [2] ff., [85] pl. of which 8 double & [1]f., [113] pl, formerly rebound in contemporary midnight blue morocco bindings, broadly framed with royal cipher and fleur-de-lys and central royal arms, gilt on the boards, spine ribbed entirely decorated with gilt numerals, small fleurons and fleur-de-lys, double gilt fillet on the edges, inner gilt fleur-de-lys, gilt edges. Engraved label of Padeloup le Jeune.
"This sumptuous two-volume collection is one of the most beautiful and rare books of the eighteenth century" (Cohen).
With only 100 copies printed, it gathers 271 figures finely engraved by 28 of the best artists of the time, including the young Boucher, gathered for this gigantic enterprise by the collector Jean de Jullienne, attached to perpetuate his memory. A friend of the painter, he is probably featured with him on the famous Enseigne de Gersaint which he owned for some time.
The copy is one of the most complete known: it contains 273 prints on 198 plates, including 3 more (a double, L'accorde de village, as well as Les enfants de Sylène & L'amour mal-accompagné) than in the Schuhmann copy whose complete collation is given by Cohen who had 271 prints on 202 plates. The two series of Chinese subjects are printed on 3 plates each. However, it does not contain La voltigeuse and only one frontispiece.
A nice copy, formerly rebacked. The bindings probably come from two present copies of Le Sacre de Louis XV... (1723), with plate decoration "à grande dorure", attributed to Derome (volume I) and Padeloup (volume II), according to the distinctions mentioned by Paul Culot. It includes the engraved heraldic ex-libris of four great bibliophiles, the minister Jérôme Phélypeaux, comte de Pontchartrain, Joan Raye van Breukelerwaert, jr. the 6th baron Foley and the baron de Fleury.
Two plates added: the beautiful portrait of Jullienne after De Troy, engraved by Balechon in 1752, and another print of L'heureuse rencontre with the title Le rendez-vous. Some plates slightly browned and scattered freckles. Boards slightly rubbed. Old endpapers reported. Titlepieces and gutter later, headpieces restored and corners rubbed. First cover of volume I unstained, spine of volume II rebacked and enlarged.
Cohen 1054-1063 ("Of the hundred copies that were printed, barely thirty exist today").
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