OZANNE, Nicolas-Marie dit Ozanne l’Aîné. Nouvelles vues perspectives des ports de France, gravées par Y. Le Gouaz.

First printing: title, map, and 60 engraved plates.

Copy containing the complete suite of the “Ports et Rades de France et des Antilles” (18 plates), for a total of 78 plates.

Very rare: copy of the very first printing, before the inscription “Réduit de la Collection des ports de France dessinés pour le roi en 1776”. This state remained unknown to Cohen; Dr. Auffret (Les Ozanne) says he has seen a similar copy and adds: “If we had doubted it, we would have acquired the certainty that this is indeed the first printing: a Paris print dealer sells them for 6 francs instead of the 3 francs at which he sells the second impressions with the notice.”

This collection includes an engraved title, 1 map, and the 60 delightful engravings in first printing, fully complete, by Ozanne l’aîné, devoted to the “vues perspectives des ports de France”.

To this work have been added 18 fine engravings of larger format illustrating the “Différents ports et rades de France et des Antilles”.

This remarkable collection thus presents, in first printing, 78 fine engravings (≈ 350 x 205 mm), each a refined evocation of animated views of the ports of France under the reign of Louis XVI:
Port de Brest (4 engravings); Toulon (3); Rochefort (1); Rouen (3); Dieppe (3); Saint-Malo (2); Saint-Servan (1); Le Havre (2); Nantes (3); Paimbœuf (1); La Rochelle (1); Lorient (3); Bordeaux (2); Bayonne (1); Antibes (1); Calais (1); Boulogne (1); Marseille (3); Sète (1); Bastia (1); Vendres (1); Dunkerque (1); Les Sables d’Olonne (1); Landerneau (1); Morlaix (2); Cherbourg (2); Valéry S. Somme (2); Camaret (2); Roscoff (1); Port-Louis (1); Belle-Isle (1); Vannes (1); Auray (1); Oléron (1); Saint-Martin de Ré (1); Le Croisic (1); La Ciotat (1); Saint-Valéry-en-Caux (1); Caen (1); Royan (1); Honfleur (2); Ile de Ré (1); Saint-Jean-de-Luz (1).

Eight of the engravings are devoted to the Antilles: Iles de la Grenade (1); Martinique (3); Saint-Domingue (3); Guadeloupe (1).

Nicolas-Marie Ozanne (1728–1811) studied drawing in Paris with Natoire and Boucher. In 1750 he became drawing instructor for the guards of the Pavillon and the navy of the port of Brest. In 1751 he came to Paris to collaborate on the drawings of the festivities given on the occasion of the visit of the port of Le Havre by Louis XV. In 1762 he obtained the brevet of naval draftsman. In 1769 he was charged with instructing the daughters of the Dauphin in the construction and handling of ships.

Bibliographers are unanimous in emphasizing the beauty and attention to detail of the drawings of Ozanne l’aîné.