Scelta di XXIV Vedute delle principali Contrade, Piazze, Chiese, i Palazzi della Citta di Firenze & Vedute delle Ville e d'altri Luoghi della Toscana

Details

After Giuseppe Zocchi (Florence 1711-1767)
Scelta di XXIV Vedute delle principali Contrade, Piazze, Chiese, i Palazzi della Citta di Firenze & Vedute delle Ville e d'altri Luoghi della Toscana
the two complete sets of etchings with engraving, 1744, including the frontispiece, dedication pages and 24 plates of the first set, and the frontispiece, letterpress table of plates and fifty plates of the second set, on laid paper, watermark Letters CR with pendant x, First Editions, published by G. Allegrini, Florence, 1744, very fine, luminous impressions, printing with great contrasts and with guidelines in the titles, with margins, in excellent condition, in a contemporary French calf binding with the coat-of-arms of Madame de Pompadour on the front and back, gilt spine, marbled end-leaves and red edges, the binding slightly worn
Sheets: 23 1/4 x 29 1/8 in. (59 x 74 cm.)
Overall: 23 7/8 x 16 1/8 in. (60,5 x 41 cm.)

Provenance

Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (1721-1764), Paris & Versailles (her coat-of-arms on the binding); the posthumous sale of her library, J.-Th. Herissant & J. Th. Herissant fils, Paris, 17 June – 5 August 1765, Estampes lot 9.
With Priestley & Weale, London (their label on the inside cover).

Literature

See Rainer Michael Mason, Giuseppe Zocchi - Vedute di Firenze e della Toscana, Florence, 1981, no. 1, 2, 4-79.

Sale room notice

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Brought to you by

Lucy Cox

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Lot Essay

The production of these two great volumes of views of Florence and Tuscany was an enormous undertaking and required the collaboration of a large number of etchers. The preparatory drawings by Zocchi were etched by printmakers from Florence, Rome, Bologna, Venice and even Germany, including by F. Berardi, M. A. Corsi, F. P. Duflos, V. Franceschini, G. Giampiccoli, M. Marieschi, P. Monaco, F. Morghen, J. S. Muller, P. A. Panzi, J. A. Pfeffel, G. Seutter, J. Wagner, G. Vasi and others. Giovanni Battista Piranesi etched one plate and so did Giuseppe Zocchi himself.

The library of Madame de Pompadour was sold in the summer of 1765, more than a year after her untimely death of tuberculosis on 15 April 1764. The sale was overseen by the Royal printer Jean-Thomas Herissant and his son Jean-Thomas fils, who served as the Royal librarian. It took place at rue Saint Jacques in Paris and lasted for 39 days, in the course of which 3525 lots of books, 235 lots of sheet music, and 36 lots of prints were sold. The present volume was offered as part of the prints section, presumably on 5 August 1765, the last day of the sale.

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