LE PAUTRE, Jean.
[Collection of 10 print series of 6 plates each with model designs for altars, church tabernacles, armorial trophies, chimney-pieces, monumental doorways, wainscoting, wall panels and ceilings].
Paris, Jean I Le Blond, Pierre II Mariette, [ca. 1655-ca. 1670]. 10 print series in 1 volume. Oblong small folio & oblong 4to (20 x 26.5 cm). With 60 engraved plates (plate size ca. 15 x 22 cm). 17th-century sprinkled, gold-tooled calf, each board with the same unidentified coat-of-arms in the centre. 3, [3]; [6]; [6]; 6; [6]; 6; 6; 6; [6]; 6 ll. (numbered in pencil: 4-63).
€ 9,500
Ten complete and very rare etched and engraved architectural-ornamental print series (each with 6 prints), designed and executed by the leading Paris architect and engraver Jean Le Pautre (1618-1682). "One of the most inventive and prolific ornamental draftsmen of all time. ... Le Pautre's importance is vast. ... All Europe followed his influence until the end of the eighteenth century." (Millard). Working for the Manufacture des Gobelins and on his own account, Le Pautre executed much work for Louis XIV. The work also provides a survey of Paris fashion in interior decoration fairly early in the reign of Louis XIV and helped to determine and establish the richly ornamental style we associate with Louis and his circles.
The collection contains the following print series:
Ad 1. Retables dautels a l[']italien[n]e ... Paris, Pierre II Mariette, [ca. 1670].
Ad 2. Tabernacles pour orner et embellir les autels nouvellement inventés et gravés ... Paris, Pierre II Mariette, [ca. 1670].
Ad 3. [Autels]. [Paris], Jean I Le Blond, [ca. 1655].
Ad 4. Trophées d'armes antique et moderne, servant a toutes sortes d'ouvriers, pour l'enbellissement de leurs ouvrages ...Paris, Pierre II Mariette, [ca. 1670? (engraved before 1667)].
Ad 5. [Cheminées à la moderne]. Paris, Jean I Le Blond, [ca. 1655].
Ad 6. Placarts ou ornemens pour l'enrichissement des chambres et alcoves. Paris, Pierre II Mariette, [ca. 1670?, engraved ca. 1656/57?].
Ad 7. Quarts de plafons. Paris, Pierre II Mariette, [ca. 1670].
Ad 8. ( [Lambris a la Romaine], Paris, Jean I Le Blond, [ca. 1670?, engraved before 1661].
Ad 9. [Lambris]. [Paris], Jean I Le Blond, [ca. 1655].
Ad 10. Lambris à la françoise. Paris, Pierre II Mariette, [ca. 1670?, engraved ca. 1655/57?].
With a minor water stain in the first leaves of series 7 and 10, slightly affecting the lower outside corner of their first 2 or 3 prints, but generally in very good condition. The front board has been reattached and the binding is somewhat worn, with some damage to the spine and corners, but the tooling remains clear. Ten very rare, beautiful and influential print series of model designs for architectural ornament, many in their earliest published states. For Le Pautre in general: Millard coll. (French), pp. 293-298 (cf. no. 100, with Mariette eds. of other Le Pautre prints).
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