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a stack of old books sitting on top of each otheran open book with a picture of a bird on itan open book with a picture of a man and a woman sitting at a tablean old book with a picture of a castle in the backgroundan old book with a drawing of a castle on top of a hillan open book with two pictures of a building and a horse drawn carriagean open book with a picture of a building in the backgroundan open book with a picture of a town in the middle of it
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63 - [LABORDE, Jean-Baptiste de].
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Estimate €5,000 - €6,000
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Description
[LABORDE, Jean-Baptiste de]. General and Detailed Description of France... [A Picturesque Journey through France, with a Description of All its Provinces...]. Paris, printed by Ph.-D. Pierres (up to Volume IV), Lamy 1781–Year 8 (1800); from Volume V, dated 1787, the title becomes ‘A Picturesque Journey through France’. 12 parts in 10 large folio volumes (51 x 33 cm). 19th-century half fir calf, smooth spine decorated in the Romantic style, gilt title, covers of green marbled paper, yellow edges speckled with blue (minor flaws to the binding, including some restoration work, slight rubbing, caps occasionally worn, occasional foxing and browned leaves, a few minor marginal flaws but a good copy overall). A superb, monumental work featuring delightful and delicate illustrations, engraved here in black by the great illustrators of the period. An important and rare description of France, bringing together over 750 views of different regions of the country. With very wide margins. 5 frontispieces 7 fold-out views. The illustrations, drawn by Lallemand, d’Aubigny, Bellanger, Cochin and engraved by Longueil, Martinet, Masquellier, Moreau, Née and others, comprise 5 frontispiece title pages and 468 copper-engraved plates, many of which contain two or three subjects per sheet. The 12 volumes are devoted to various regions of France, notably Burgundy, the Dauphiné, Île-de-France and Paris, Languedoc, Roussillon, the County of Foix, Franche-Comté, Champagne, Normandy, Picardy, several other provinces. Complete with the large fold-out view by Moreau the Younger, *Revue du Roi* at the Plaine des Sablons, and its large engraved vignette (in volume 7). A rare and sought-after work, illustrated with magnificent views documenting France between the Revolution and the Empire. Jean-Benjamin de Laborde, first valet to Louis XV and his favourite, a writer and musician, obtained a post as a fermier général; he was guillotined in 1794. His great fortune had enabled him to financially support or initiate numerous works, of which this is the most ambitious, although it remained unfinished Although it was a work produced during the Ancien Régime [...], it proved to be far more ambitious than its predecessors. Indeed, despite his ties to the monarchy, Laborde conceived his work not as a chronicle of the kings’ exploits, but as a history of the manners and customs of the French people, as well as the geography and natural history of the various regions of France... [This work] pioneered an approach that would serve as a model for subsequent publications. It certainly foreshadowed the vast, richly illustrated scientific work devoted to Egypt. Jean-Benjamin de Laborde (1734–1794) Cohen, 291–295. Millard, 85. Graesse, II, 367.
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About the sale Books & Manuscripts
Auction location
Auction time 10/30/2026 at 2:00 PM
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