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Two-volume large paper edition with 20 plates in two states. Vol. 1 (with plates). Title : CONTES | ET | NOUVELLES EN VERS. | PAR | JEAN DE LA FONTAINE. | — | TOME PREMIER| {vignette “P.P. Choffard 95”} | A PARIS, | DE L’IMPRIMERIE DE P. DIDOT L'AÎNÉ. | L’AN III DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE. | M. DCC. XCV. || Pagination: [2] [i-iv] v-vii [viii], 1-280 [2 table] [2], total 294 pages, ils. Collation: 4to; 1 blank, π4 (π3a signed “a”), 1-354 361, 1 blank, total 147 leaves, plus 40 leaves of plates with tissue guards, after Fragonard and others, which represent 20 engravings, each in two states, before and after letters, besides №9 (Le Calendrier des Vieillards by Jean Dambrun after Fragonard), which has two identical copies, both before letters. Vol. 2. (without plates) Title: same, but TOME SECOND. Pagination: [2] [4] 1-334 [2], total 342 pages. Collation: 4to; 1 blank, π2 1-414 423 1 blank, total 167 leaves. Binding: Two volumes uniformly bound in crimson straight-grain morocco, ruled in gilt, gilt-decorated flat spine with lettering, board edges and turn-ins tooled with gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers, three bookplates to front pastedown, top edge trimmed, 2nd volume partly uncut; text and plates printed on thick Dutch wove paper. Size: volumes: 33.3 x 25.2 cm; leaves: 31.5 x 23.5 cm. Provenance: Bishop, Cortlandt Field (American, 1870 – 1935) – bookplate. Mary S. Collins – bookplate by J. H. Fincken. Robin F. Satinsky (American, 1919 – 2008) – Robin Collection bookplate. Catalogue raisonné: Ray (French): 133-137; Cohen-DeRicci 573-582 ; Lewine : 281-282. CONTRIBUTORS: Jean de La Fontaine (French, 1621–1695) – author. Pierre Didot (French, 1761–1853) – publisher, printer. Artists: Jean-Honoré Fragonard (French, 1732–1806) Jean Baptiste Mallet (French, 1759–1835) Jacques Louis François Touzé (French, 1747–1807) Charles Monnet (French, 1732–after 1808) Engravers: Jacques Aliamet (French, 1726–1788) Jean Dambrun (French, 1741–about 1808) Jean Louis Delignon (French, 1755–about 1804) Jean Baptiste Michel Dupréel (French, active 1787–1817) Louis Michel Halbou (French, 1730–1809) Charles Louis Lingée (French, 1748–1819) Charles Emmanuel Jean Baptiste Patas (French, 1744–1802) Jean Baptiste Simonet (French, 1742–1813) Jean Baptiste Tilliard (French, 1740–1823) Philippe Trière (French, 1756–about 1815) Pierre-Philippe Choffard (French, 1730–1809) – t.p. vignette PLATES (collation order): №8: Fragonard / Trière – La Gageure des trois Commères №1*: Fragonard / Lingée – Joconde №1**: Mallet / Trière – Joconde №2: Fragonard / Delignon – Le Cocu battu et content №3: Fragonard / Tilliard – Le Mari confesseur №4: Fragonard / Dambrun – Le Savetier №5: Fragonard / Lingée – Le Paysan qui avait offensé son Seigneur №9: Fragonard / Dambrun – Le Calendrier des Vieillards №10: Fragonard / Aliamet – A Femme avare galant Escroc №12: Fragonard / Halbou – Le Gascon puni №11: Fragonard / Patas – On ne s’avise jamais de tout №13: Monnet / Tilliard – La Fiancée du roi de Garbe №14: Fragonard / Dupréel – La Coupe enchantée №15: Fragonard / Tilliard – Le Faucon №17: Fragonard / Patas – Le Pâté d’Anguilles №18: Fragonard / Tilliard – Le Magnifique №19: Fragonard / Delignon – La Matrone d’Ephèse №20: Fragonard / Patas – Belphégor №22: Touzé / Simonet – Le Glouton №26: Touzé / Lingée – Le Baiser rendu -
Five volumes, uniformly bound in marbled three-colour stained polished calf, spine with raised bands, gilt in compartments, crimson label with gilt lettering “CONTES DE BOCCACE”, cream label with volume number, marbled endpapers and all edges; bookplate pasted to first blank flyleaf “BIBLIOTHÈQUE DE LAJUDIE” depicting a coat of arms over an anchor, anchors and tulips scattered in the upper section, globe in the lower section, in a frame. Size: 21 x 14 cm. Translated by Antoine Le Maçon (French, 1500? – 1559). Vol. 1: [4] two blank leaves, portrait by Louis Lempereur after Hubert Gravelot, engraved t.p.: LE | DECAMERON | DE JEAN | BOCCACE. | TOME I. | Londres | 1757. | H. Gravelot Inv. […] T.P. N 21 […] J. Aliamet Sculp. ||, engraved frontispiece to Vie de Jean Bocace by Lempereur after Gravelot; Pagination: [i] ii-viii (Vie de Jean Bocace with head- and tail-pieces); [1] 2-320 [2] one blank leaf. Collation: 8vo; a4 A-V8, 164 leaves + 6 blanks + 24 plates (incl. portrait, frontis., and t.p.) extraneous to collation, 1 headpiece and 18 tailpieces. Vol. 2: [4] two blank leaves, engraved t.p.: LE | DECAMERON | DE JEAN | BOCCACE. | TOME II. | Londres 1757 | H. Gravelot inv. […] T.II. N.1. […] N. LeMire Sculp .||; Pagination: [1] 2-292 [2] one blank leaf. Collation: 8vo; A-S8 T2, 146 leaves + 3 blanks + 23 plates (incl. t.p.) extraneous to collation, and 18 tailpieces. Vol. 3: [4] two blank leaves, engraved t.p.: LE | DECAMERON | DE JEAN | BOCCACE. | TOME III. | Londres 1757 | Gravelot inv. […] T.III. N.1. […] Aillamet Sc. ||; Pagination: [1] 2-203 [204] [2] one blank leaf. Collation: 8vo; A-M8 N6, 102 leaves + 3 blanks + 23 plates (incl. t.p.) extraneous to collation, and 18 tailpieces. Vol. 4: [4] two blank leaves, engraved t.p.: LE | DECAMERON | DE JEAN | BOCCACE. | TOME IV. | Lond 1761 | Gravelot invenit […] T.IV. №.I. […] Alliamet Sculpsit. ||; Pagination: [1] 2-280 [2] one blank leaf. Collation: 8vo; A-R8 S4, 140 leaves + 3 blanks + 23 plates (incl. t.p.) extraneous to collation, and 20 tailpieces. Vol. 5: [4] two blank leaves, engraved t.p.: LE | DECAMERON | DE JEAN | BOCCACE. | TOME V. | Londres 1761 | Gravelot, inv. […] T.V. N.1. […] Aillamet Sc. ||; Pagination: [1] 2 [3] 4-269 [270] [2] one blank leaf. Collation: 8vo; A-Q8 R7, 135 leaves + 3 blanks + 23 plates (incl. t.p.) extraneous to collation, and 22 tailpieces. Total plates: 24+23+23+23+23=112; total vignettes: 19+ 18 + 18 +20 + 22 = 94; total etchings and engravings: 213. Ref: MFA ACCESSION NUMBER 37.1371a-e; Cohen-de Ricci 160; Ray, French Illustrated Book, 15 / p. 39-41; Metropolitan Museum, NY (Accession Number: 17.3.2641). Contributors: Authors: Giovanni Boccaccio (Italian, 1313–1375); Filippo Villani [Philippe-Matthieu Villani] (Italian, 1325 – 1407)Illustrated by: Hubert François Gravelot (French, 1699–1773). Artists: Charles Eisen (French, 1720–1778); François Boucher (French, 1703–1770); Charles-Nicolas Cochin le fils (French, 1715–1790), Jacques Aliamet (French, 1726–1788) Engravers: Jean Charles Baquoy (French, 1721–1777); Jean Jacques Flipart (French, 1719–1782); Louis Legrand (French, 1723–1807); Noël Le Mire (French, 1724–1801); Louis Simon Lempereur (French, 1725–1796); Catherine Elisabeth (Cousinet) Lempereur (French, born in 1726); Jean-Jacques André Le Veau (French, 1729–1786); Pierre Etienne Moitte (French, 1722–1780); Jean Ouvrier (French, 1725–1784); Jean Jacques Pasquier (French, died in 1785); Pierre (Pitre) Martenasie (Flemish, worked in France, died in 1770?); Augustin de Saint-Aubin (French, 1736–1807); Dominique Sornique (French, 1708 – 1756); Jacques Nicolas Tardieu (French, 1716–1791). Publisher: Prault (French, 18th century) Note: MFA copy has a slightly different collation: [v. 1] 152 leaves, plus plates; [v. 2] 136 ll., plus pls.; [v. 3] 98 ll., plus pls.; [v. 4] 131 ll., plus pls.; [v. 5] 124 ll., plus pls. This is their description: "First edition with these illustrations; a French translation (Cohen-de Ricci 160) appeared slightly later. Gravelot designed 89 of the 111 plates, and all 97 of the tailpieces, his largest single commission. Some 115 of his preliminary sketches by this series are in the Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress; 131 of the final engraver's models are in the Widener Collection at the National Gallery of Art; and two other finished drawings are in the Ray Collection, Pierpont Morgan Library. Ten plates were designed by Eisen, and Cochin and Boucher had six each. As some plates in the later volumes are dated as late as 1761, the actual issuing of the volumes apparently extended to that date." -
Engraved title:
Upper frame: ALMANACH | ICONOLOGIQUE, | OU | DES ARTS | pour l'année | 1764. | Orné de Figures | avec leurs explications | par | M. GRAVELOT. | avec Priv. du Roy | A PARIS
Lower frame: Chez Lattré Graveur rue S. Jacq. | à la Ville de Bordeaux.
Under the frame: H. Gravelot del. — L. Legrand sc.
28 leaves, of them: engraved t.p., engraved frontis., and 12 plates, text engraved. Pages numbered 1-12, and I-XII (incorrectly marked XVI), other unpaginated, unbound tissue guards. Size: 10.6 x 7.2 cm, full polished crimson calf w/veins, triple-ruled in gilt with florets in corners, flat spine, double-ruled in gilt, all edges gilt. Florets in compartments, black title label with gilt lettering “ALM | ICON ||”, peacock marbled endpapers, blue silk ribbon. Approbation dated 15 November 1763, as some plates.
Catalogue raisonné: Cohen, De Ricci 454.
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Two-volume edition, financed, arranged and managed by Fermiers généraux. Vol. 1. Title : CONTES | ET | NOUVELLES | EN VERS, | Par M. de La Fontaine. | TOME I. | {vignette} | A AMSTERDAM. | — | M. DCC. LXII. || Pagination: [2] – blanks [i, ii] – h.t. / blank, [iii, iv] – t.p. / blank, v-xiv, [1] 2–268 [269-70] – table, [4] – blanks, plus frontispiece by Fiquet after Rigault, t.p. vignette, vignette, headpiece, and 23 tailpieces by Choffard, 39 plates by various engravers after Charles Eisen. Vol. 2. Title: same but TOME II. Pagination: [2] – blanks] [i, ii] – h.t. / blank, [iii] iv-viii [1] 2–306 [307-10] – épitaphe / table, [4] – blanks, plus frontispiece by Fiquet after Vispré, t.p. vignette, vignette, headpiece, and 29 tailpieces by Choffard, and 42 plates after Charles Eisen (Ray only cite 41 plates). Binding: 2 volumes, 19.8 x 12.2 each, uniformly bound in full Spanish mottled calf, boards triple ruled in gilt, flat spine with triple bands, double ruled and tooled in gilt, black title labels lettered in gilt, all margins gilt, marbled end-papers, in cardboard slipcases, openings leathered. In vol. 1 a manuscript plate 4.8 x 8.2 cm pasted to page [1]: "Cette Édition est très rare n’y ayant | eu que 30 Exemplaires de livres, ou la figure principale dans le Cas de Conscience page 143 Tom 2 est nud tandis que dans les autres Éditions cette Figure est voilée par un feuillage".
Contributors:
Jean de La Fontaine (French, 1621–1695) – author.
Fermiers généraux and Jean Baptiste Séroux d'Agincourt (French, 1730 – 1814) – publisher.
Joseph Gérard Barbou (French, 1723–1790) – printer.
Artists:
Charles Eisen (French, 1720 – 1778)
François Xavier Vispré (British-French, c.1730 – 1789 or after)
Hyacinthe Rigaud [Jacint Rigau-Ros i Serra] (Catalan-French, 1659 – 1743)
Engravers:
Joseph de Longueil (French, 1730 – 1792)
Noël Le Mire (French, 1724 – 1801)
Jean-Jacques André Le Veau (French, 1729 – 1786)
Jacques Aliamet (French, 1726 – 1788)
Jean Charles Baquoy (French, 1721 – 1777)
Pierre-Philippe Choffard (French, 1730 – 1809)
Jean Jacques Flipart (French, 1719 – 1782)
Louis Simon Lempereur (French, 1725 – 1796)
Jean Ouvrier (French, 1725 – 1784)
Étienne Ficquet (French 1719 – 1794)
Catalogue raisonné: Ray (French): №26, pp. 54-56; Cohen-DeRicci: 558-571; Lewine: 278-280.
