Lot Essay
Delafosse, an architect and professor of geometry and perspective, produced numerous designs of trophies, several of which were engraved. Similar to the present work is Europe and America, plate 7 of the series Nouvelle iconologie historique ou attributs hierogliphyques, published in Paris in 1768. A drawing in the same technique and of comparable composition, a Design of a military trophy on a plinth, can be found at Waddesdon Manor (inv. WM 15-Acc. no. 1209; see A. Laing, The James A. De Rothschild bequest at Waddesdon Manor. Drawings for Architecture. Design and Ornament in two volumes, Aylesbury, 2006, I, no. 131, ill.).