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an image of a painting of two naked men in a wooded areaan old book with a brown cover and gold trim
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775 - Gessner, Salomon
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Estimate €400 - €600
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Description
Gessner, Salomon Mort d’Abel. Poem. Translated by Hubert. An illustrated edition featuring colour engravings based on drawings by M. Monsiau. With a frontispiece and five copper plates, all engraved in colour after Monsiau. Paris, Defer de Maisonneuve 1793. Flamed half-leather binding with leather corners, fillet, rich gilt edging and a brown spine label. Signed: Pagnant. Cohen/Ricci 436. – Fürstenberg 122 and 205. – Leemann-van Elck 699. – Sander 780 – Magnificent Didot print on good paper; the colour-engraved copperplates appear before the numbering. - The frontispiece featuring Gessner’s bust (and a small commemorative plaque bearing the translator’s name) was engraved by Colibert; the magnificent illustrations accompanying the five cantos are by him, Clément and Casenave. - The copperplate engravings, printed entirely in colour, appear before the text (‘avant les numéros des pages’). “From 1791 onwards, the publisher Defer de Maisonneuve brought out a series of precious illustrated books. Their colour engravings, however, were not produced by multi-plate printing, but from a single plate using the dot-work technique, following the English model. The best known among them are Florian’s *Galatee* and Gessner’s *Mort d’Abel*” (Lexicon of the Book Trade). “The colour engraving technique, imported from England and which reached the highest levels of technical and artistic perfection in France, enjoyed only a brief heyday in the field of book illustration during the 1790s in a small number of limited-edition luxury publications by the publisher Defer de Maisonneuve, which were not followed up in their time’ (Furstenberg catalogue, p. 88). - Broad-margined edition, rarely slightly stained, a good copy overall. With frontispiece and fine colour-engraved plates after Monsiau. Magnificent Didot print on good paper, the copper plates printed in colour prior to numbering. - Half-coatskin with gilt fillets, rich spine gilding and brown spine label - Broad-margined edition, only very rarely showing minimal staining; on the whole, a good copy.
See original version (German)
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About the sale Valuable books, prints, historical photographs
Auction location
Auction time 10/24/2026 at 10:00 AM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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