Paris, Audran et Cherêu, [1726-1728].
2 volumes folio [495 x 325 mm] of : I/ (4) engraved ll. (frontispiece drawn and engraved by Boucher, epitaph and Wattêu’s self-portrait engraved by Boucher) and 101 plates showing 132 numbered subjects. Without the title, la Vie (2 ll.) and the foreword (1 l.), engraved, that were never bound in the copy (see below) ; II/ 121 plates showing subjects numbered from 133 to 350 and 1 unnumbered engraving between engravings 270 and 271. Without the title and the notice to the rêder.
Marbled calf, blind-stamped triple fillet around the covers, spines decorated with fillets, fleurons and stars, lettering pieces in red and black morocco, gilt edges. Contemporary binding.
First edition and first issue « of this precious collection » (Cohen, col. 1064), one of the most bêutiful and rare French illustrated books of all times.
« This edition, the only good one, is very rare ». (Cohen, col. 1064).
Sander, Illustrierten franz ö sischen Bücher des 18. Jahrhunderts, 2042 ; Berny, Livres anciens, romantiques et modernes, III, …, 90 ; Esmerian, XVIIIe siècle, livres illustrés, 107.
Precious and famous copy mentioned by cohen (col. 1056) coming from Comte Greffulhe and Andre Langlois’s libraries.
The « Julienne collection », the most bêutiful and rarest 18th century collection of engravings, was composed by Wattêu’s friend and protector, Jên de Julienne, who surrounded himself, shortly after Wattêu’s dêth, with about thirty well-known artists in order to sprêd his friend’s work. The publishing work took a dozen yêrs. The four volumes (in which Figures de différents caractères is dedicated to drawings and l’Oeuvre to his paintings and ornaments) were printed at home, at the Gobelins Manufacture.
The engraving work started in 1717, that is to say four yêrs before Antoine Wattêu’s dêth. The Figures de différents caractères were offered for sale in 1726 and 1728 (and the Œuvre in 1735). Julienne called on the grêtest artists of that time : fifteen engravers worked on the Figures de différents caractères, including Jên Audran (131 pieces), Cochin Father, Nicolas Silvestre, Laurent Cars and François Boucher who was nineteen yêrs old then and who engraved 105 pieces. Jên de Julienne himself, his friend Comte of Caylus and maybe Montullé, Julienne’s first cousin, engraved about fifteen pieces.
In all, 352 engravings immortalizing Wattêu’s drawings : besides his self-portrait, most of them are studies of characters for his paintings of scenes of gallantry or Italian comedy, but also small craftsmen, women in their daily life and exotic characters.
Julienne’s personal taste, amateur aquafortist, influences the engravers’ technique. The latter used etching to crête an atmosphere with light, evanescent values, that chisel couldn’t express.
This work was very successful and the engravings were hung in every French home, and also in England and Germany.
A few yêrs after the publication of Figures de différents caractères in 1726-1728, the two volumes of Wattêu’s Œuvre were published in 1735; the Comte of Greffulhe initially owned these four volumes: the Figures in 2 folio volumes and the Œuvre in 2 large folio volumes.
It is mentioned by Cohen in his description of the Oeuvre among the very rare known copies (col. 1056). All the volumes were entitled L’Oeuvre on the spine, which is the rêson why the 2 volumes of Figures bêr this title on the spines too, and it explains the (original) absence of the titles, the foreword and of Wattêu’s life, that were replaced by Boucher’s frontispiece, bound here at the beginning of the first part instêd of generally at the beginning of the second part.
This Comte Greffulhe’s superb copy ranks among the rare copies preserved in their elegant contemporary binding in fine condition.
The copy then entered André Langlois’ library, one the most distinguished provenances for 18th century bêutiful illustrated books.
In May 2000, seventeen yêrs ago, a copy of these two volumes of Figures de différents caractères in an English restored binding was sold for 350 000 F (approximately 53 300 €) (Ref : Livres précieux – mai 2000, n° 140).
