A Paris, chez l’Auteur, Md Joyaillier, Quay des Orfèvres, au Bouquet de Diamants chez Tilliard, 1762.
4to [258 x 198 mm] of (1) l., 88 pp., (1) l. of approval and privilege, 79 hand-coloured plates out of pagination. Marbled calf, triple blind-stamped fillet around the covers, spine decorated with small repeated coats of arms, red title-piece, inner border, red edges. Contemporary binding.
First edition of the most beautiful book on jewelry, precious stones and the art of adornment published in the Age of Enlightenment.
Cohen, 819.
It includes a treatise on precious stones, semi-precious stones and precious metals, a catalogue of the authors who have dealt with the knowledge of precious stones, a chronological table of the main orders of Europe, the biography of the principal goldsmiths, Meissonnier, the Germains, Varin, Jean de Bologne, Verrochio, etc., and the history of the 6 corps of merchants.
The work is illustrated with a frontispice by Painger engraved by Courtois, 79 engraved plates with many subject by Miss Raimbau, showing models of Bracelets, Boxes, Garments, Buckles with flowers, Clips, Buckles for shoes, Necklaces, Knots, Rings, Suuffboxes, Watches, Combs, etc. and of the portrait of the Countess of Bury engraved by Pouget with a superb pearl necklace added.
“Pouget (Jean-Henri-Prosper), son of a rich goldsmith in Paris, joined to his father’s profession the diamond trade and died in 1769 with the reputation of a skilled jeweler.
He left a very appreciated work: “Traité des pierres précieuses et de la manière de les employer en parure”, Paris, 1762, 4to, with 79 plates; there are copies whose figures are coloured; it is a curious book where one finds instruction and pleasure. After having made the various stones, pebbles, marbles and metals known, Pouget gives a catalogue of the authors who have written on precious stones since Theophrastus with a judgment on their works. One then finds the chronological and historical notice of the principal orders of knighthood, their various decorations, and finally the names of the goldsmiths who distinguished themselves in their profession with the indication of their masterpieces.”
A copy entirely hand-coloured at the time with very wide margins, preserved in its original contemporary calf binding with the arms of Voyer de Paulmy d’Argenson (1696-1764) on the spine.
Marc-Pierre de Voyer, count of Argenson, viscount of Paulmy, second son of Marc-René, Lord Chancellor of France, and of Marguerite Le Fèvre de Caumartin, born on August 16, 1696, became successively lawyer of the King at the Châtelet of Paris in 1718, councilor at the Parliament on August 29, 1719, master of the requests on November 17 of the same year, lieutenant general of the police of Paris on January 5, 1720, captain governor of Loches, intendant of Touraine on February 18, 1721, chancellor, Lord Chancellor and Grand Cross of the order of Saint-Louis in June 1721; he became again Lieutenant General of the Police of Paris on 26 March 1722, a position he left on 2 January 1724, was appointed Chancellor of the Regent on 20 September 1723, State Councilor on 28 January 1724, member of the Academy of Sciences on 31 August 1726, Director of the Library in March 1737, First President of the Grand Council in 1739 and Intendant of Paris in August 1740; he was called to the Council as Minister of State on 25 August 1742, received the portfolio of Secretary of State for the Department of War on 8 January 1743 and the superintendence of the Post Office in November 1744; he resigned from his position as Chancellor, Lord Chancellor and Grand Cross of Saint Louis in January 1749 in favour of his nephew, Antoine-René, and was appointed honorary member of the Academy of Inscriptions the same year. The hostility of Mme de Pompadour led to the dismissal of the Count d’Argenson from the ministry on 1 February 1757 and his exile to his land at Les Ormes, in Touraine. However, he was allowed to return to Paris, where he died on 22 August 1764. He had married Anne Larcher on 24 May 1719.
We owe to the Count d’Argenson the foundation of the Military School (January 1751); as director of the bookshop, this minister protected the writers.
From the Destailleur library (1895, n°1471).
