Details
[GIGAULT DE LA SALLE, Achille Etienne (1772-1840)]. Voyage pittoresque en Sicile. Edited by J.F. d'Ostervald. Paris: P. Didot, l'ainé, 1822 [-1826].
Vol. I only (of 2), broadsheets (666 x 446mm). LARGE-PAPER ISSUE. 44 AQUATINT PLATES, ALL BUT ONE FINELY HAND-COLOURED TO RESEMBLE WATERCOLOURS (area of image approx. 430 x 290mm.), 2 plates on tinted paper, 2 engraved maps, dedication to the duchesse de Berry. PRIZE-WINNING BINDING BY SIMIER, PÈRE ET FILS, FOR THE DEDICATEE, THE DUCHESSE DE BERRY. Gold-tooled purple straight-grained morocco, her arms in centre of upper and lower cover and her cypher 'M.C.' (Marie-Caroline) [fer larger than any recorded in Olivier] crowned in corners, in an architectural fanfare design with a series of double and treble fillets, filled with arabesque stamps, cornucopias and convoluted foliage. Stepped edges to the boards, outer border tooled in blind. Spine with four raised bands, upper and lower compartments tooled with foliage and arabesques. Inner dentelles tooled with ten fillets and various foliate tools within ruled border. Green washed silk doublures and liners gilt-tooled in borders. All edges gilt. Signed by Simier at foot of spine, with his binder's ticket 'Relieur du Roi et de S.A.R. Madame Duchesse de Berry, et de Duc de Bordeaux'. A further ticket "1er PRIX RELIURE. EXPOSITION 1827". (Corners and foot of spine scuffed, some wear along lower edges, three minor abrasions to spine, very minor discoloration.)
THE DEDICATEE'S COPY IN A MAGNIFICENT SIMIER BINDING. Marie-Caroline-Ferdinande-Louise de Bourbon-Sicile, the duchesse de Berry (1798-1870), was daughter of Ferdinand I, King of the Two Sicilies. At the age of 18 she married the duc de Berry, second son of the future Charles X. Her husband was assassinated at the Opéra in 1820, and the duchesse de Berry, a widow at the age of 22, devoted herself to her two children. (Her son, the duc de Bordeaux, is mentioned on Simier's ticket.) After her involvement in a failed uprising in the Vendée in 1832, the duchesse was confined in the citadel of Blaye until 1833. After her release, the duchesse was ostracized by the Royal Family, who took charge of the upbringing of her son. She lived in Venice, and died in 1870 at the castle of Brunnsee in Styria, Austria. Throughout her life she was a patron of the arts, with a particular enthusiasm for books. Olivier describes her superb library at the château of Rosny as "une luxueuse bibliothèque remarquable tant par le choix des éditions et la richesse des reliures que par l'importance des manuscrits qu'elle renfermait" (note to 2519). A large part of the library was sold in 1837. Two other works belonging to the Duchesse de Berry, also in fine bindings, are included in this sale (lots 82 and 83).
The Voyage pittoresque in Sicile is a rare work: Abbey (writing in 1956) states that only three copies had appeared at auction in England in the last fifty years, and only three copies (which were all uncoloured and one of which was incomplete) have been recorded since in England. The book was published in twenty-four parts, and is "the most ambitious of the coloured aquatint books edited by J. F. d'Ostervald" (Abbey). A second volume was published in 1826 and, although the title here is dated 1822, the preface is dated 1826. The plates in the present volume are mostly of Palermo, Monreale, Segesta, Selinunte and Agrigento. They are engraved by Hegni, Thales and Newton Fielding, Himely, Salathé, Bennet, Bentley and Egerton after Huber, Vauzelle, Lesaint, Roumy, Renoux, Copley-Fielding, Coignet, Frommel, Cte. de Forbin, Michalon, Perin, Bonnington, Moritz, Cte. de Pourtales, Brune, Rémond, Boisselier and Cockerell.
Abbey Travel 262; Brunet V, 1379.
Vol. I only (of 2), broadsheets (666 x 446mm). LARGE-PAPER ISSUE. 44 AQUATINT PLATES, ALL BUT ONE FINELY HAND-COLOURED TO RESEMBLE WATERCOLOURS (area of image approx. 430 x 290mm.), 2 plates on tinted paper, 2 engraved maps, dedication to the duchesse de Berry. PRIZE-WINNING BINDING BY SIMIER, PÈRE ET FILS, FOR THE DEDICATEE, THE DUCHESSE DE BERRY. Gold-tooled purple straight-grained morocco, her arms in centre of upper and lower cover and her cypher 'M.C.' (Marie-Caroline) [fer larger than any recorded in Olivier] crowned in corners, in an architectural fanfare design with a series of double and treble fillets, filled with arabesque stamps, cornucopias and convoluted foliage. Stepped edges to the boards, outer border tooled in blind. Spine with four raised bands, upper and lower compartments tooled with foliage and arabesques. Inner dentelles tooled with ten fillets and various foliate tools within ruled border. Green washed silk doublures and liners gilt-tooled in borders. All edges gilt. Signed by Simier at foot of spine, with his binder's ticket 'Relieur du Roi et de S.A.R. Madame Duchesse de Berry, et de Duc de Bordeaux'. A further ticket "1er PRIX RELIURE. EXPOSITION 1827". (Corners and foot of spine scuffed, some wear along lower edges, three minor abrasions to spine, very minor discoloration.)
THE DEDICATEE'S COPY IN A MAGNIFICENT SIMIER BINDING. Marie-Caroline-Ferdinande-Louise de Bourbon-Sicile, the duchesse de Berry (1798-1870), was daughter of Ferdinand I, King of the Two Sicilies. At the age of 18 she married the duc de Berry, second son of the future Charles X. Her husband was assassinated at the Opéra in 1820, and the duchesse de Berry, a widow at the age of 22, devoted herself to her two children. (Her son, the duc de Bordeaux, is mentioned on Simier's ticket.) After her involvement in a failed uprising in the Vendée in 1832, the duchesse was confined in the citadel of Blaye until 1833. After her release, the duchesse was ostracized by the Royal Family, who took charge of the upbringing of her son. She lived in Venice, and died in 1870 at the castle of Brunnsee in Styria, Austria. Throughout her life she was a patron of the arts, with a particular enthusiasm for books. Olivier describes her superb library at the château of Rosny as "une luxueuse bibliothèque remarquable tant par le choix des éditions et la richesse des reliures que par l'importance des manuscrits qu'elle renfermait" (note to 2519). A large part of the library was sold in 1837. Two other works belonging to the Duchesse de Berry, also in fine bindings, are included in this sale (lots 82 and 83).
The Voyage pittoresque in Sicile is a rare work: Abbey (writing in 1956) states that only three copies had appeared at auction in England in the last fifty years, and only three copies (which were all uncoloured and one of which was incomplete) have been recorded since in England. The book was published in twenty-four parts, and is "the most ambitious of the coloured aquatint books edited by J. F. d'Ostervald" (Abbey). A second volume was published in 1826 and, although the title here is dated 1822, the preface is dated 1826. The plates in the present volume are mostly of Palermo, Monreale, Segesta, Selinunte and Agrigento. They are engraved by Hegni, Thales and Newton Fielding, Himely, Salathé, Bennet, Bentley and Egerton after Huber, Vauzelle, Lesaint, Roumy, Renoux, Copley-Fielding, Coignet, Frommel, Cte. de Forbin, Michalon, Perin, Bonnington, Moritz, Cte. de Pourtales, Brune, Rémond, Boisselier and Cockerell.
Abbey Travel 262; Brunet V, 1379.