Illustrated Books
The vanished gardens of Montmorency
Extremely rare booklet describing the vanished gardens of the count of Albon,
illustrated with 19 plates very finely executed.
LE PRIEUR, J.-C. Description d’une partie de la vallée de Montmorenci, Et de ses agréables Jardins, Ornée de Gravures.
A Tempé, et se trouve à Paris, chez Moutard, 1784.
8vo [215 x 137 mm] of (4), 43 pp. and 19 plates including 3 folded.
Preserved in its original blue wrappers, untrimmed, spine cracked.
Extremely rare copy of this booklet, published anonymously, giving a description of Franconville (Val d’Oise) and especially of the famous gardens of the count of Albon, vanished today.
Cohen 624-625; De Ganay 117; Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes, 3543.
The gardens, described at the time as extravagant, had been created by the count of Albon, after he had acquired a very large property owned by Cassini de Thury, the director of the Observatory.
The illustration is composed of 19 plates very finely executed by Benoit, Le Pagelet, the countess of Albon and F. Marie de Lussy and engraved by Benoit and Le Pagelet.
They represent views of chalets and garden ornaments of the count Claude Camille François of Albon (1753-1789): temples, pyramids, obelisks, caves, etc. as well as a peculiar experiment of balloon. Indeed, the count of Albon made take off a balloon from his gardens, which was found five days later on the other side of Montmorency.
These plates had already been published in a collection entitled « Vue des monuments construits dans les jardins de Franconville-la-Garenne » (Paris, Moutard, 1784).
«These gardens, in the English style, were so remarkably beautiful that we published ‘Vues des monuments construits dans les jardins de Franconville-la-Garenne’ » (Michaud).
A good copy of this rare book dedicated to the art of gardens, preserved in its original wrappers.
Only two copies of this extremely rare booklet are preserved in French institutions: at the B.n.F. and at the Bibliothèque de Dole.
Price: €4 500
The most important book from the 18th century dedicated to the Ottoman Empire
First edition of the most important work from the 18th century
dedicated to the Ottoman Empire.
Prestigious copy with the first volume contemporary bound with the posthumous arms
of Maria Theresa of Austria, Holy Roman Empress and queen of Hungary and Bohemia.
MOURADJA D’OHSSON, Ignace de. Tableau général de l’empire Othoman, divisé en deux parties, dont l’une comprend la Législation Mahométane ; l’autre, l’Histoire de l’Empire Othoman. Dédié au roi de Suède.
Paris, de l’imprimerie de Monsieur, 1787-1790.
2 parts in 2 volumes large folio (505 x 330 mm) of: I/(4) ll. including the frontispiece, x pp., (1) l., 324 pp., (2) ll., 2 charts on double-page (marked A and AA), 1 folding-pl. (B), 1 pl. of writings (C), and 23 plates out of pagination representing 37 figures including 3 on double-page; II/ (1) l., viii pp., 357, 41 plates including 4 folding plates representing the subjects 41 to 137.
Part 1 bound in contemporary red Russian young goat , triple gilt filet on borders of the covers, arms gilt-stamped in the centre, spine ribbed and decorated, green morocco lettering-pieces, inner gilt border, blue watered silk doublures and endpapers, gilt edges. Part 2 bound in contemporary green quarter-calf, spine ribbed.
First edition of this fundamental work for the understanding of the Ottoman Empire.
Brunet, III, 1932 ; Cohen 763 ; Graesse 618 ; Blackmer 1164 ; Atabey 846.
« The only perfect source of information regarding the laws and constitution of the Turkish Empire ». Burckhardt
The second volume is dedicated to the Muslim religion and its rituals. It comprises details about the two holy cities and the pilgrimages, and shows a superb view of the Mecca.
« A very well executed work. The first two volumes deal with religion and Mahometan legislation. [… »] (Brunet)
« For Turkey, the excellent work of Mouradja d’Ohsson must not be omitted. The plates are beautifully executed in the line manner, and the testimony of Burckhardt to the valuable and interesting information this work contains, should alone secure it a place in every well chosen library. It is a noble work in all respects, and I give it an earnest and hearty recommendation to every collector of spirit and taste” (T. Frognall Dibdin, The Library Companion, p. 436).
Mouradja d’Ohsson, born in Constantinople, was the secretary and first interpreter of the Swedish ambassador in Constantinople. He became a chargé d’affaires in 1782 and was appointed chevalier of the order of Wasa, then plenipotentiary minister and extraordinary envoy.
« He offered to write Selim II’s reign, but soon he conceived the plan of a ‘Tableau général de l’empire ottoman’, from then he devoted himself without reservation to this venture. In 1784, as d’Ohsson had managed to obtain not without difficulty a definite knowledge about uses, habits, customs, internal practices of the seraglio that had always missed to the rest of Europe, about a nation that has always been unable to become familiar with, he went to Paris to implement his rich materials. In 1788 he published the first folio volume of the ‘Tableau général de l’empire ottoman’; he published the second one the following year. The revolution that arose in France suspended his literary enterprise; he went to Constantinople […]. This work was about to be finished when d’Ohsson died in 1807, and this great project was let incomplete. » (Peignot, Dictionnaire biographique et bibliographique, 557)
A third volume, published by courtesy of the author’s son desirous to continue the project of his father, will appear 30 years later, in 1820.
The excellent and abundant illustration comprises 1 frontispiece and 68 plates representing 138 subjects, including 9 on double-page and 2 folding. A large part of the illustrations was engraved after drawings by J. B. Hilaire, the artist who went with Choiseul-Gouffier in 1776. Other plates are engraved after drawings by Moreau le jeune and Cochin.
As plates 13, 19 and 36 of the first volume were printed late, and consequently delivered after the publication of the volume, they are not present in our copy that was bound as soon as the printing of the volume ended.
« As plates 13, 19 and 36 of the first part were executed after the volume, they are missing […]. » (Brunet)
« This work has not been finished. The first volume encloses besides an engraved title and 4 plates marked A, AA, B and C 40 plates numbered 1-40 (pl. 13, 19 and 36 have been executed after the volume and are usually missing), the second one pl. 41-137 ». (Graesse)
« Plates 13, 19 and 36 are missing in many copies » (Cohen).
A prestigious copy of the most important publication from the 18th century dedicated to the Ottoman Empire. The first volume that was published shortly after the death of Maria Theresa of Austria was contemporary bound in red morocco with her posthumous arms.
Maria Theresa of Austria (1717-1780) has been Holy Roman empress, archduchess of Austria, and queen of Hungary and Bohemia. She led the War of the Bavarian Succession (1740-1748) against Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony as well as France and Spain. This war made her lose Silesia. In 1745, she had her husband Francis I elected Holy Roman emperor, because she could not officially have this title. Impressed by her outdoing personality her contemporaries soon named her « the great Maria Theresa ». Then she led the war against Frederick II in the Seven Years’ War (1756-1762), in order to get back Silesia, but she failed. Maria Theresa of Austria is the mother of 16 children, including Marie-Antoinette, who married Louis XVI in 1770.
The second volume which was published at a later date was bound in a simple green quarter-calf binding.
Price: € 19 500
First edition of the Hortus Farnesianus
The first edition of the Hortus Farnesianus, printed in Rome in 1625.
A superb copy preserved in the editor’s original cased binding.
[CASTELLI (P)] ALDINI, Tobie. Exactissima descriptio rariorum quarundam plantarum, Que continentur Rome in Horto Farnesiano : Tobia Aldino Cesenate Auctore.
Rome, J. Mascardi, 1625.
Folio [350 x 243 mm] preserved in the editor’s original cased binding. Contemporary binding.
First edition.
Hunt, 208; Nissen, 13; Seguier, p. 34; L. Allatius, Apes Urbanae, sive de viris illustribus qui ad anno 1630 per totum 1632 Roman adsuerunt, 1633, p. 218.
The work contains an engraved title, 22 full-page engravings and 6 woodcuts.
“There has been considerable dispute about the authorship of this work; Seguier quotes Allatius for the statement that Petrus Castelli wrote a book which anwers to this description ‘Alieno nomine… edidit’ but Nissen quotes a contrary opinion from a friend of Castelli. It has not, we believe, been previously noticed that the preliminary leaf with the poem ‘to the learned author’ by J.C. Lummenaeus contains an acrostic, the initial letters giving ‘Petrus Castellus Romanus’. (Arpad Plesch, n°125).
“The book was published under the name of Tobie Aldini. He was an Italian doctor and botanist from Cesena in the 17th century, and the personal doctor of the cardinal Odoard Farnese, who set him up as the director of his botanical garden. Aldini published a description of this garden under the title: ‘Descriptio plantarum horti Farnesiani, Rome’, 1625, folio, with 28 plates, much well-known under the name of ‘Hortus Farnesianus’. Aldini gave rather fine plates of some of these plants, and exact descriptions, but overcharged with erudition. Among these plants, there is an acacia, or mimosa, which kept the nickname of ‘Farnesiana’ that reminds us of the gratitude we should show to the memory of the cardinal Farnese, who was a protector and the friend of the scholars, and that indicates the garden where this tree was first cultivated. It is nowadays naturalized in Italy and in the South of France.
The author promised to publish more figures; but they remained unpublished. It seems that Aldini was only the figurehead of this book and that it was in fact the work of Pierre Castelli, a Roman doctor, who expressly writes in the foreword that he wrote everything: ‘Omnia scripsi’.”
A superb wide-margined copy, uncut, with very bright engravings, preserved in the original editor’s cased binding, a very rare condition.
Price: € 11 000
The twelve months of the year illustrated
The twelve months of the year in contemporary colouring and in a contemporary binding.
N.p.n.d., towards 1607.
SADELER, Gilles – STEVENS, Peeter II. The twelve months of the year. (Menses XII anni solaris).
N.p.n.d, [not before 1607].
Oblong folio [395 x 285 mm] with 12 etchings. Bound in contemporary calf, spine ribbed.
A superb and complete suite of 12 engravings of the twelve months of the year, all contemporary hand-coloured with great delicacy and preserved in their contemporary binding.
Thieme-B. XXXII, 25 and XXIX, 299.
The volume, preserved in its contemporary binding, contains the twelve contemporary hand-coloured copperplates.
Wide-margined, each of them bears the name of a month, Petrus Stephani’s signature (Peeter II Stevens), a six Latin verses caption; Marco Sadeler’s address has been scratched out; this complete suite was bound without the title of the 1607 edition.
Hollstein, XXI, 129-140.
This very fine suite engraved by Gilles Sadeler illustrates the twelve months of the year with the signs of the zodiac This set of plates was engraved by Gilles Sadeler after Peeter II Stevens to show the specific occupations of daily life according to the period of the year: the wood felling and picking in January, the gardening in April, the sheep shearing in June, the harvest in July, the fruit harvesting in September, the grape picking in October, etc.
Peeter II Stevens, called Stephani, landscape painter and engraver, born in Malines towards 1567, dead after 1624, was the elder son of Anton Stevens I and Anton II’s father; member of the guild of Malines in 1560. In 1589 he was freemason in Antwerp. He was a painter at the court of Rudolph II in Prague from 1590 to 1612 and appears under the name of Pet. Magzhan. He came back to the Netherlands after he went, towards 1600, to Venice and Roma. He was appointed again in Prague in 1624. Works of Peeter I and of Peeter II have never been perfectly differentiated, even by the archives. It seems that besides the war compositions or ordered portraits, he painted many landscapes.
« Gilles Sadeler was born in Antwerp, in 1570, and learnt the engraving from his uncles Jean and Raphaël, that he equalled soon. He went with them to Germany and to Italy and engraved in the latter country a significant number of engravings after the most famous masters from the Italian school. His affection for his uncles, who were treating him like a son, had to give up to the Emperor Rudolph’s entreaties who called him to his court, in Prague, and who granted him a pension when he arrived. He benefited from the same favours with the emperors Mathias and Ferdinand II, and it was during his stay in Prague that he engraved most of his engravings. He surpassed his uncles by his burin’s beauty and by a taste of engraving more analogous to the one of his originals. When the subject required it, he engraved the finest burin; but at the same time he knew how to use his tool in the largest and the more clever way, when he had to deal with some portraits or some pieces of history. His engraving was full of strength and vigour, and he obtained the greatest effects without pushing for the black. He enjoyed in his lifetime his full reputation and he received the title of paragon of the engraving […]. We can give the same praise to his landscapes, genre in which he may have no rivals. His work is considerable: we count thirty portraits; seventy-nine pieces from his own compositions; thirty-two historical subjects after various masters and eighty landscapes, including fifteen after Breughel de Velours, twenty-five after Rol. Savery and twenty-four after Pierre Stevens. »
Complete suites of contemporary hand-coloured engravings from the very beginning of the 17th century, well preserved in a contemporary binding, became extremely rare on the market.
Price: € 11 500
A pocket-atlas from the 17th century
Ortelius’ pocket-atlas in Italian, complete with its 108 full-page maps,
preserved in its contemporary binding.
Venice, 1667.
ORTELIUS, Abraham. Theatro del mondo.
Venetia, Per Scipion Banca, 1667.
16mo [133 x 93 mm] of (4) ll., 232 pp., (8) ll. 108 full-page engraved maps.
Bound in contemporary stiff vellum. Handwritten exlibris on the half-title: « Bibliotheca Neorelli ».
Italian pocket-edition of Ortelius’ atlas, illustrated with 108 full-page engraved maps.
Philips 478 ; Tooley 31.
« The commercial success of the pocket-atlas was considerable. It was translated into French and Latin (now in prose) and was reprinted several times, long after Pieter Heyns had moved into the Netherlands together with his son Zacharias in 1588. In the year of Pieter Heyn’s death (1598), his son, Zacharias, then living in Amsterdam, repeated the successful best-seller of his father by publishing another Miroir du Monde, using woodcut”. Koeman.
The illustration contains a world map and the continents’ maps: Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. The 103 other maps represent each country for which a note has been written on the opposite page.
The first edition in Italian was printed in 1608.
A charming copy preserved in its contemporary vellum binding.
Price: € 9 500
Tropical butterflies from around the world
First edition of the most beautiful book ever published about butterflies,
illustrated with more than 1650 contemporary hand-coloured specimens.
CRAMER, Pierre. Papillons exotiques des trois parties du monde l’Asie, l’Afrique et l’Amérique.
A Amsterdam, chez S.J. Baalde, à Utrecht, chez Barthelemy Wild, [1775-] 1779-1782 [-1784].
[With:] -STOLL, Caspar. Supplément à l’ouvrage, intitulé les Papillons exotiques, des trois parties du monde l’Asie, l’Afrique et l’Amérique ; par M. Pierre Cramer.
Amsterdam, chez Nic. Th. Gravius, [1787-] 1791.
5 volumes 4to [296 x 228 mm] bound in red straight-grained full morocco, wide foliage border on covers, arms in the centre, spines ribbed lightly faded and decorated with fleurons and gold dots, gilt edges, sea green doublures and endpapers. Bozérian jeune.
First edition of this masterpiece of entomology.
Nissen 985; Graesse, Trésor de livres rares et précieux, 294; Sabin 17382; Cohen, 262; Brunet, II, 404.
It is the first work dealing with tropical butterflies to be arranged in accordance with the Linnaean system. It contains the description of more than 1650 butterflies species, most of them being described here for the first time.
It is a « great work which was highly expensive at the end of the 18th century » emphasizes Cohen.
Pierre Cramer (1721-1776) was a rich wool dealer and a great entomologist collector. He formed a magnificent natural history cabinet abounding with butterflies coming from all around the world, enlarged thanks to his relations with the Dutch traders and settlers established abroad and the sailors of the Compagnie des Indes.
When Cramer undertakes the catalogue of his collection, he calls on the painter G. W. Lambertz to draw the specimens he owns, as well as some from other cabinets.
Cramer dies in 1776, after the publication of the eighth part, and the work is then continued by Stoll.
Caspar Stoll gives the description from nature of caterpillars and chrysalis of Surinam bred by Renaud, an amateur who stayed for a long time in these countries, as well as by Vaillant, collected during his travels to the Cape of Good Hope. He also shows butterflies and phalenes, some of which described for the first time, from Surinam, Guinea Cost, Brazil …
The supplement, published 9 years after the fourth volume of the Papillons exotiques, is rare and is missing from most copies.
The superb and rich illustration contains 2 frontispieces engraved by Th. Koning and C.J. de Huyser, and 442 outstanding plates (including 42 in the supplement) representing 2709 full-size species, drawn from the originals by Lambertz and copperplate engraved. All the illustrations were finely contemporary hand-coloured under the supervision of Cramer himself.
« Pierre Cramer, from Amsterdam, published in Dutch and French 400 plates of exotic butterflies from the three parts of the world. It is a splendid work for the sharpness and elegance of the figures. It is much sought-after by natural history lovers. » (F. Cuvier, Dictionnaire des sciences naturelles, 34)
A very beautiful copy of the most beautiful book ever published about butterflies, complete with the rare supplement and uniformly bound at the time in straight-grained red morocco by Bozérian jeune.
Provenance: arms of Pavée de Vendeuvre stamped towards 1830 on covers. Pavée de Vendeuvre was a deputy under the Restoration and he was peer of France in 1837.
Price: € 45 000
Spain and Portugal at the beginning of the 19th century
« L’Espagne et le Portugal »,
a copy in contemporary red full morocco binding.
BRETON DE LA MARTINIERE, Jean-Baptiste Joseph. L’Espagne et le Portugal, ou Mœurs, Usages et Costumes des habitans de ces royaumes. Précédé d’un précis historique, par M. Breton. Ouvrage orné de 54 planches représentant douze vues et plus de soixante costumes différens, la plupart d’après des dessins exécutés en 1809 et 1810.
Paris, A. Nepveu, 1815.
6 parts in 6 volumes 12mo [134 x 80 mm]: I/ XIX, (1), 218 pp., 1 plate ; II/ (2) ll., 215 pp., (3) bl. pp., 5 plates ; III/ (2) ll., 219 pp., (3) bl. pp., 5 plates ; IV/ (2) ll., 217 pp. (3) bl. pp., 12 plates ; V/ (2) ll., 253 pp., (3) bl. pp., 22 plates ; and VI/ (2) ff., 231 pp., (3) bl. pp. and 9 plates.
Contemporary red full straight-grained morocco, wide gilt border on covers, flat spines richly decorated, inner gilt border, gilt edges.
First edition of these charming volumes dedicated to history, geography and manners and customs in Spain and Portugal at the very beginning of the 19th century.
The abundant illustration consists of 54 coloured plates, some of them folded, showing views, everyday life scenes, and traditional costumes from the described regions.
A precious copy complete with all its plates, rare in a contemporary red full morocco finely decorated binding.
Price: € 9 500
An admirable popular illustration of Rabelais
An admirable popular illustration of Rabelais’ works.
RABELAIS, François. La plaisante, et joyeuse histoyre du grand Geant Gargantua. Prochainement reveue & de beaucoup augmentée par l’Auheur mesme.
-Second livre de Pantagruel, Roy des Dipsodes […] Plus les merveilleuses navigations du disciple de Pantagruel, dict Panurge.
-Tiers livre des faictz, et dictz heroiques du noble Pantagruel, composés par M. Franç. Rabelais […]
Valence, chez Claude La Ville, 1547.
3 parts in 1 volume 16 mo [112 x 73 mm] of: I/ 246 pp. and 58 figures; II/ 320 pp. and 50 figures; III/ 349 pp. and 59 figures.
Red full morocco, double gilt fillet on covers, gilt fleuron in the centre, spine ribbed and decorated with gilt fillets and fleurons, wide inner gilt border, gilt edges. Signed Capé.
A beautiful copy of this precious counterfeit of Claude La ville’s edition, printed towards 1600.
Brun, p. 280 ; Plan 85 ; Brunet, IV, 1051-1052 ; Tchemerzine, V, p. 297.
On the title, a grotesque vignette depicts singers (40 x 50 mm).
Besides that, the illustration is composed of a set of 167 vignettes in the style of Lyons, a classic example of popular imagery. Many of them seem to have been especially engraved.
The copy described by Brun in Le livre français illustré de la Renaissance only had 104 vignettes instead of the 167 present in this copy.
The quality of the issue is a lot better than in the first edition.
« In this counterfeit, the figures are a little more sharper compared to the original »
emphasizes Brunet.
Pp. 215 to 233 of the 2nd part present the Pantagrueline Prognostication, while the end of the same part is dedicated to Voyage & Navigation que fist Panurge, disciple de Pantagruel, aux Isles incongneues & estranges. Pp. 281 to 349 of the 3rd part contain the Quart livre, with the prologue and the first 11 chapters of the fourth book. This text shows few differences with the complete editions of the same book.
A very beautiful copy of this book printed in round characters and admirably illustrated in the popular manner of that time.
Price: € 13 000
La Mottraye’s great travels through Europe, Asia and Africa
La Mottraye’s great travel through Europe, Asia and Africa,
illustrated in the first issue with William Hogarth’s engravings.
One of the rare copies printed on large-paper.
The Hague, 1727.
LA MOTTRAYE, Aubry de. Voyages du Sieur A. de La Motraye, en Europe, Asie et Afrique. Où l’on trouve une grande variété de recherches géographiques, historiques et politiques, sur l’Italie, la Grèce, la Turquie, la Tartarie, Crimée, & Nogaye, la Circassie, la Suède, la Laponie, etc… avec des remarques instructives sur les mœurs, coutumes, opinions &c. des peuples & des païs où l’Auteur a voyagé […]
La Haye, T. Johnson & J. Van Duren, 1727.
2 volumes folio [368 x 235 mm] of I/ (7) ll., 1 frontispiece, 472 pp., 23 pp., and 31 plates out of pagination including 6 folding plates and 10 on double-page; II/ 1 frontispiece, (3) ll., 496 pp., 39 pp., 18 plates including 7 on double-page and 2 maps on double page. Title-pages printed in black and red.
Bound in contemporary granite-like calf, double blind-stamped fillets on covers, spine ribbed and decorated with gilt fleurons, red mottled edges.
First French edition of Aubry de la Mottraye’s important travel through Europe, Asia and Africa.
Chadenat 105 ; Blackmer 946.
Aubry de La Mottraye settled in Constantinople in 1698 to practise freely the Protestant religion. He had already visited Italia, Jaffa, Alexandria, Tripoli, Mahn Harbour, and Lisbon and had followed Tallard to England. He met Tekeli in Constantinople and travelled through Anatolia up to the Black Sea. He sailed to Malta and then towards Barcelona. La Mottraye stroke up a friendship with F.E. Fabrice, an agent of Charles XII towards 1711, and followed him to Bendery. Constant travels between Constantinople and Didymoteicho occupied him until 1714.
He left for Sweden with Fabrice and went up to Laponia.
« In his travels, La Mottraye focuses on the habits and customs and reveals many peculiar anecdotes about characters whose names became famous in history. »
Bibliographers emphasize the beauty of the illustrations due to William Hogarth’s talent, one of the most famous English artists from the 18th century.
The present work is illustrated in the first issue with 47 very fine engravings out of pagination drawn by William Hogarth, most of them being folding or double-page engravings, with 2 frontispieces and 4 maps.
Drawn with talent and originality, they represent with elegance and movement customs scenes, characters, costumes, and monuments from the countries visited by La Mottraye.
Hogarth shows here a very particular verve as « the first English painter to have an indisputable personality. »
« A peculiar work, sought-after for its 46 plates, almost all drawn by W. Hogarth, one of the most famous English artists from the 18th century. Besides it contains 4 maps. »
(Chadenat)
An exceptional copy printed on large-paper, especially wide-margined (height: 368 mm). An ordinary copy is approximately 315 mm high, that is to say 53 mm shorter than this one.
Price: € 15 000
The Kehl’s edition of the Mariage de Figaro enriched with a series of figures engraved
The Kehl’s edition of the Mariage de Figaro.
An exceptional copy enriched with the series of figures engraved for the first edition.
Paris, 1785.
Beaumarchais, Pierre-Augustin Caron de. La Folle Journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro, Comédie en cinq actes, en prose. Représentée pour la première fois, par les Comédiens français ordinaires du Roi, le mardi 27 avril 1784.De l’Imprimerie de la Société Littéraire-Typographique ; Paris, Ruault, 1785.
Large 8vo [250 x 160 mm], of LI pp., (1) p., 199 pp., (1) p. for 2 approvals, (1) l. for the errata.
Bound in blue morocco, border fillets in the style of Duseuil on covers, gilt fleurons at the corners, spine ribbed richly decorated with gilt fleurons and dotted fillets, inner gilt border, and gilt edges. Binding signed Perreau.
Second original edition of Le Mariage de Figaro, known as Kehl’s edition, the finest among old editions.
This edition was printed in Kehl by Beaumarchais, with the types he used for Voltaire’s works.
Tchemerzine, I, p. 492 ; Cohen 124-126 ; Le Petit pp. 568-570.
It contains the same approval (Janurary 25th 1785) and the same printing licence ( January 31st, 1785) as the first edition.
« The first edition was published without figures. Immediately after, five plates drawn by St Quentin were added, of which the first four were engraved by Malapeau and the fifth by Roi. As a result, we can find some copies with the figures, and others without […].
The edition printed in Khel with the types used for Voltaire’s works contains the same five figures drawn by St Quentin for the first edition, but taller, more beautiful and engraved by Liénard (1st, 3rd and 5th act), (2nd act) by Halbou, (4th act) by Lingée. »
Tchemerzine
This copy has been exceptionally enriched with the series of engravings originally produced for the first edition.
This copy is not only illustrated with the 5 engravings made by Liénard, Halbou and Lingée for this edition, but also with the series known as Malapeau’s, engraved for the first edition.
This volume was also enriched with the author’s portrait drawn by Cochin and engraved by St Aubin.
A precious wide-margined copy, exceptionally enriched with the series of figures engraved for the first edition and with a portrait of the author.
Price: €4 500