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€ 5.000 - 7.000
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€ 5.000
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At auction on Thursday 21 November 2024 at 10:30
Information
Amsterdam, se[Paris, Barbou], 1762. 2 volumes in 8°, 178 x 115 mm. Engraved portraits of La Fontaine and Charles Eisen on the frontispieces of the first and second volumes respectively, 80 copper-engraved figures outside the text by Aliamet, Bacquoy, Choffard, Delafosse, etc. after Eisen and numerous culs-de-lampe and vignettes by Choffard, finely copper-engraved headpieces and tailpieces. SPECTACULAR RED MOROCCAN BINDING SIGNED DEROME LE JEUNE , frame and decorations impressed in gold on the covers and spine, title and volume number within green leather inserts, gilt edges.
Famous edition known as “des Fermiers-Généraux” . Exemplary of the "second tirage" in which the figures of Le Diable de Papefiguiere and Le Cas de conscience covered. The figures of the Lunettes, Richard Minutolo, Bât and Rossignol are uncovered.
Specialist Notes
Although labeled “Amsterdam,” the two volumes were actually printed by the esteemed Parisian publisher Joseph-Gérard Barbou (1723–1790?). The text, identical to that of earlier editions, was prepared by Jean-Baptiste Séroux d'Agincourt (1730–1814), who was himself a fermier. The superb illustrations were provided by Charles Eisen (1720–1778), who, according to the dates on some of the images, began work on them in 1759, and were engraved by several leading engravers. “Of the eighty plates initially engraved, twenty or more were rejected, although we do not know by whom. Some were judged inferior, the typefaces being out of scale with the rest of the drawing. Others, however, were deemed indecent, showing too much nudity or depicting postures likely to offend” (Adams). The incriminated plates were made less explicit or even completely re-engraved, but prints were made of the original engravings which can be found bound in several copies (the so-called “discovered” states ( découvert )). As happens in the present example .
Rochambeau, Contes 79 ; Adams, "The publication of La Fontaine's 'Contes' by the Fermiers generaux" in: Bulletin of the John Rylands Library LXXVI, 1 (1994), pp. 139-152; Cohen-De Ricci, cols. 558-570.