Recueil des Plans, Elevations et Coupes ... des Châteaux, Jardins et Dependances Que le Roy de Pologne Occupe en Lorraine [Together with:] Suite des Plans, Elevations et Coupes [And:] Plans et elevations de la Place Royale de Nancy et des Autres Edifices qui l'Environnent
Here De Corny, Emmanuel Léopold
Paris. Se Vend à Paris Chez François. 1750–1753
Sold
Rare first edition of one of the greatest and most beautiful 18th century books on architecture.
The volumes were composed, designed and engraved by Emmanuel Héré de Corny (1705 - 1763), a French architect, and Jean Charles François (1717 - 1769), a French engraver from Nancy. Héré was the chief architect to the twice-deposed Polish King, Stanislas Leczinski, who received the Duchys of Bar and Lorraine in the Treaty of Vienna. Héré devoted his entire professional career (1736 - 1763) to Stanislas and was almost single-handed in the design of the plans and direction of the works.
The first two volumes, published in 1750 (or 1751), illustrate designs for the chateaux, parks, and garden pavilions Héré executed for Stanislas: Luneville, Chanteheux, Malgrange, Commercy and Eineville. According to Millard: 'A first edition of 125 copies was produced ... ' and that the information concerning the publication ' ... is contained in the 1761 expense accounts for Stanislaw'.
The third volume, published three years later, is devoted entirely to illustrate the plans for the Place Royale de Nancy. In addition to plans and views of the three interconnected spaces in Nancy, the volume contains the designs of the structures adorning the processional route, including the Hotel de Ville, the Hotel Consulate, the Bourse de Commerce, and the Palace of the Military Government, as well as the triumphal arches, statues, fountains, and wrought iron grilles that ornamented the spaces. The ensemble is one of the major works of urban design of the eighteenth century.
'Mon père, vous êtes mieux logé que moi ... '. (Louis XV to Stanislas Leczinski, King of Poland and father of Louis' wife).
'Stanislaw's architecture, executed by Héré, is known for its playful, exuberant character, its suprise effects, theatrical landscapes, and expression of the capricious and exotic taste of its patron ... These luxurious volumes, produced to promote Stanislaw's claims to royalty and his connections with the royal house of France (his daughter was married to Louis XV in 1725), were designed in the manner of royal books of ceremonies, coronations, solemn entries, and funerary rites, by which sovereigns made known the majesty of their reign'. (Millard).
With a limitation (according to Millard and the accounts of Stanislas) of 125 copies for the first parts, the work is necessarily rare; equally given the fragmented nature of the publication many copies lack the third part. COPAC lists three copies in the UK, two at the British Library (one incomplete) and an additional incomplete copy at the V & A; KVK records only one complete copy in Germany at the Fürstliche Bibliothek Corvey and incomplete copies at Bayreuth and the Bayersiche Staatsbibliothek, as well as copies at the Bibliothèque Nationale in France, the National Library of Spain and the Getty, while the copy in the Danish Royal Library lacks the final part; WorldCat adds copies at Princeton, Harvard, the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library in Ontario, Illinois and Texas, with an incomplete copy at the Art Institute of Chicago; without a complete count of actual plates many of these copies may also lack part three.
[Not in RIBA; not in Fowler; Brunet III, 113; Berlin 2511; Millard 78; Cicognara 4024].
The volumes were composed, designed and engraved by Emmanuel Héré de Corny (1705 - 1763), a French architect, and Jean Charles François (1717 - 1769), a French engraver from Nancy. Héré was the chief architect to the twice-deposed Polish King, Stanislas Leczinski, who received the Duchys of Bar and Lorraine in the Treaty of Vienna. Héré devoted his entire professional career (1736 - 1763) to Stanislas and was almost single-handed in the design of the plans and direction of the works.
The first two volumes, published in 1750 (or 1751), illustrate designs for the chateaux, parks, and garden pavilions Héré executed for Stanislas: Luneville, Chanteheux, Malgrange, Commercy and Eineville. According to Millard: 'A first edition of 125 copies was produced ... ' and that the information concerning the publication ' ... is contained in the 1761 expense accounts for Stanislaw'.
The third volume, published three years later, is devoted entirely to illustrate the plans for the Place Royale de Nancy. In addition to plans and views of the three interconnected spaces in Nancy, the volume contains the designs of the structures adorning the processional route, including the Hotel de Ville, the Hotel Consulate, the Bourse de Commerce, and the Palace of the Military Government, as well as the triumphal arches, statues, fountains, and wrought iron grilles that ornamented the spaces. The ensemble is one of the major works of urban design of the eighteenth century.
'Mon père, vous êtes mieux logé que moi ... '. (Louis XV to Stanislas Leczinski, King of Poland and father of Louis' wife).
'Stanislaw's architecture, executed by Héré, is known for its playful, exuberant character, its suprise effects, theatrical landscapes, and expression of the capricious and exotic taste of its patron ... These luxurious volumes, produced to promote Stanislaw's claims to royalty and his connections with the royal house of France (his daughter was married to Louis XV in 1725), were designed in the manner of royal books of ceremonies, coronations, solemn entries, and funerary rites, by which sovereigns made known the majesty of their reign'. (Millard).
With a limitation (according to Millard and the accounts of Stanislas) of 125 copies for the first parts, the work is necessarily rare; equally given the fragmented nature of the publication many copies lack the third part. COPAC lists three copies in the UK, two at the British Library (one incomplete) and an additional incomplete copy at the V & A; KVK records only one complete copy in Germany at the Fürstliche Bibliothek Corvey and incomplete copies at Bayreuth and the Bayersiche Staatsbibliothek, as well as copies at the Bibliothèque Nationale in France, the National Library of Spain and the Getty, while the copy in the Danish Royal Library lacks the final part; WorldCat adds copies at Princeton, Harvard, the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library in Ontario, Illinois and Texas, with an incomplete copy at the Art Institute of Chicago; without a complete count of actual plates many of these copies may also lack part three.
[Not in RIBA; not in Fowler; Brunet III, 113; Berlin 2511; Millard 78; Cicognara 4024].
3 vols. in 1. Elephant folio. (655 x 480 mm). 83 engraved plates: composed of 3 engraved titles within rich ornamental borders by Lattré, 2 allegorical frontispieces (vols. I and III only) by Jean Charles François after P. Girardet, 2 engraved dedications to the French King (vols. I and III only) and 76 engraved plates, plans, sections and elevations and the two leaves of engraved text in vol. I ('Description du Rocher ... au bas de la Terrasse du Château de Lunevile' with engraved head- and tail-piece, printed recto and verso of a single leaf) and vol. III ('Reflexion sur les Divers Batimens et sur Tous les Ornemens qui les Accompagnent' printed recto only and dated 1751). Sheet size: c.650 x 930 mm. Nineteenth-century calf-backed marbled boards.
#43355
