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a painting of a man in a red coat and white hairan old wooden frame with a piece of paper in it
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Premium Maître Paul PASTAUD

1591 - [BLAIZOT (Pierre) – Painting]. Portrait of Pierre Blaizot (c…
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Estimate €3,500 - €4,000
Sale commission
Description
[BLAIZOT (Pierre) – Painting]. Portrait of Pierre Blaizot (c. 1740 – 1808), late 18th century. 35 x 28, oil on panel in a gilded frame (original frame). Some loss of gilding on the frame. An exceptional portrait of the bookseller to Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, the last bookseller to the Crown. “Bookseller and dealer in prints, music, maps and wallpaper; official bookseller to the King, the Queen and the royal family. - Son of a book pedlar from Montsurvent, near Coutances. Orphaned at the age of 9, he was trained by an uncle who ran a book and print shop on the Rampe de la Chancellerie in Versailles. He himself set up shop there around 1769. In 1775, he opened a literary salon in Versailles and another shop in Paris. Suspected of selling banned books, he was imprisoned from 10 to 16 May 1782. He was elected a councillor for the town of Versailles in 1790 and 1792, then served as a judge at the Commercial Court and as a deputy judge at the Magistrates’ Court. His premises were searched and raided on several occasions during the Revolution. In July 1792, he sold his shop to the bookseller Nicolas Angé; then, in 1802, he helped his son-in-law Antoine-Hippolyte Étienne (1776–1840) set up as a bookseller, though he appears to have continued practising himself. Reported to be aged 36 at the time of his marriage (November 1776) and 67 years and 6 months at the time of his death (Montigny-le-Bretonneux, Yvelines, 25 April 1808)”. Entry from the BnF. On the back of the portrait is a very dense text, with a few gaps, which recounts the life of Pierre Blaizot, differing slightly from the BnF entry:he is described there as the son of small-scale farmers, but above all we learn that his licence as bookseller to the King and the Royal Family ‘obliged him to add to his trade in antique and modern books maps, music and wallpaper; he ran a literary salon, … he became the licensed publisher of the *Almanach de Versailles*; that he had privileged access to the apartments of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette; and that Louis XVI entrusted him with the task of procuring all the pamphlets published abroad against him. It was also Louis XVI himself who secured his release whilst he was imprisoned. Bonaparte was also a frequent visitor to the bookseller’s, as it was there that he came to purchase Cassini’s maps.
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About the sale MONTIGNAC – 31st BOOK SALE – Day 3 of 4 – Nos. 1085 to 1642
Auction location
Auction time 08/21/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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