| I must admit I could have solved a lot quicker but it was a great exercise in internet archaeology. We have been puzzling over the this 1775 edition shown in the Notice above from the Bibliotheque nationale de France, studying this more closely we see References(s): Cohen-De-Ricci, 813. I had noticed this same reference in a handwritten script on the letter that accompanies the BnF Suite d'estampes gravees par Madame la marquise de Pompadour d'apres les pierres gravees de Guay, graveur du roy. the script was Cohen, VI, 813 A wonderful friend of mine suggested that this might mean the sixth edition of Guide de l'amateur de livres a gravures du XVIIIe siecleby Henri Cohen. Even more amazing was the fact that this 1912 book has been digitized by Gallica (click here to see it). It didn't take me long to find page 813 and sure enough this was the reference. I show the page below. |
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You don't need to know a lot of French to spot the error here "Plus tard Basan, ayant acquis les planches au deces de marquis de Marigny, fit tire la present edition" this translates roughly as... "Later Basan, having acquired the copper plates at the death of Marquis de Marigny, made this edition" referring to the 1775 'edition' in the beginning of the notes, but wait a minute, Marigny died in 1781 and his belongings were auctioned off in 1782, it is well known that Basan bought the plates and had them published in the same year along with 14 pages of text that details each engraving. In fact it was not until this 1782 edition that there was any edition at all. Madame de Pompadour gave away some collections of plates to various friends, however the work was far from finished. The text and the introduction to the publication were never printed until 1782. The only 1775 edition is this one invented by Cohen or more probably de Ricci who made so many terrible errors... we don't have time to go into that. What is interesting is the mention in this reference, of some other examples of Pompadour's plates that have shown up in auctions... Un curieux examplaire ou toutes les planches etaient remontees en encadrees de filets dans une belle reliure de maroquin olive a mosaique de fleurs 490 fr.,"vente Colin (n. 17) revendu 560 fr., vente Rich. Lion (n. 337") A curious copy where all the engravings were framed outlines in a beautiful binding of olive morocco with mosaic of flowers, 490 fr., Sale Colin (n.17) resold 560 fr., Sale Rich Lion (n.337 " This is most certainly Henry Walters copy with a mosaic binding by Douceur, and seems to be the only one that has these hand drawn frames around each engraving... |
| The good news is that I discovered, after searching every possible lead in connection with Suite d'estampes gravees par Madame la marquise de Pompadour d'apres les pierres gravees de Guay, graveur du roy. a digitized copy of the 1782 edition. This is Madame de Pomadour's completed work and I am going to show on the next page, the additional engravings that are in this set as well as the text for those of you who have these Pompadour plates and are wanting to know more about them. First of all however I want to thank the Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek for making this publication available to the world. |
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| Even experts are sometimes wrong, before you spend thousands on a book, please do your own research! Just because I say a certain binding can be attributed to le Maitre isn't any kind of guarantee, don't take my word for it, go a step further and get your own proof. In these pages I have provided you with a way of doing just that. |
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