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Details
VALLET, Pierre, engraver (1575-1650) – HELIODORUS (4th century). Les Adventures amoureuse de Theagenes et Cariclée. Paris: Pierre Vallet and Gabriel Tavernier, 1613.
The Wrest Park copy in red morocco of the first edition, a "veritable bijoux" (Duménil). The story, adapted from an ancient Greek romance, is unfolded chiefly through Vallet's fine engravings, with minimal text and printed on rectos only. The effect is that of a graphic novel as it is "organized much like an emblem book with an argument" (Spiller Reading and the History of Race in the Renaissance, 2011). Vallet was also a botany enthusiast, who produced the first important engraved florilegium in France in 1608. RBH and ABPC record only one copy sold at auction in the last 20 years (the Vershbow copy, Christie's New York, 20 June 2013, lot 727, for $30,000). Robert Duménil called this work "un veritable bijou bibliographique de la plus grand rareté" (Le Peint-graveur français, vol. 4, p. 101). Brunet III 89.
Octavo (184 x 114mm). Engraved title, 120 numbered half-page engraved illustrations, printed on rectos only, ruled in red throughout (small chip to lower corner of page 15; small marginal wormhole throughout, neatly repaired in early gatherings; 7 engravings repeat; plate 117 is on page 113 and 113 on page 117). 17th-century red morocco gilt, gilt edges. Provenance: Duke of Kent (Wrest Park bookplate).
The Wrest Park copy in red morocco of the first edition, a "veritable bijoux" (Duménil). The story, adapted from an ancient Greek romance, is unfolded chiefly through Vallet's fine engravings, with minimal text and printed on rectos only. The effect is that of a graphic novel as it is "organized much like an emblem book with an argument" (Spiller Reading and the History of Race in the Renaissance, 2011). Vallet was also a botany enthusiast, who produced the first important engraved florilegium in France in 1608. RBH and ABPC record only one copy sold at auction in the last 20 years (the Vershbow copy, Christie's New York, 20 June 2013, lot 727, for $30,000). Robert Duménil called this work "un veritable bijou bibliographique de la plus grand rareté" (Le Peint-graveur français, vol. 4, p. 101). Brunet III 89.
Octavo (184 x 114mm). Engraved title, 120 numbered half-page engraved illustrations, printed on rectos only, ruled in red throughout (small chip to lower corner of page 15; small marginal wormhole throughout, neatly repaired in early gatherings; 7 engravings repeat; plate 117 is on page 113 and 113 on page 117). 17th-century red morocco gilt, gilt edges. Provenance: Duke of Kent (Wrest Park bookplate).