FONTANIEU, Pierre-Elisabeth de - Lot 86

FONTANIEU, Pierre-Elisabeth de Collection de Vases inventés et dessinés par M. de Fontanieu, Intendant et Contrôleur général des meubles de la Couronne. Cette collection a été faite, pour servir aux tourneurs et à ceux qui ornent les vases, comme fondeurs et ciseleurs. Paris, 1770 BOOK-MANIFESTO RENEWING FRENCH TASTE: FOR NEO-CLASSICISM AND AGAINST ROCOCO. COPY BOUND IN CONTEMPORARY MOROCCO BY DEROME. FORMER ARMAND-ALBERT RATEAU AND ED. LINCOLN ORIGINAL EDITION In-folio (500 x 332mm) ILLUSTRATION: 47 etched plates by Niodot EARLY BOOKBINDING SIGNED BY DEROME LE JEUNE (label). Red morocco, gilt decoration, wide lace on the boards, ornate ribbed spine, gilt edges. 45 blank leaves are bound at the end. PROVENANCE: Mlle d'Alleray (bookplate) -- Joseph Baer (Bucheinbände, Cat. 740, no. 232 and Cat. 770, no. 144) -- Armand-Albert Rateau (bookplate) -- Edmond L. Lincoln (Paris, November 23, 2010, lot 39) Pierre-Élisabeth de Fontanieu (1731-1784) succeeded his father as Intendant of the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne. He held this position from 1767 to 1783, and ordered the transition from Rococo to Neo-Classicism in the furnishing of France's royal palaces. Craftsmen as diverse as Peyrotte, Gondoin, Pitoin and Foliot received direct orders from him, as evidenced, for example, by an invoice from Gondoin, dated 1769, for the Dauphin's bed: "le modèle [que j'ai réalisé selon] les changements faits par ordre de M. de Fontanieu" (cf. Archives nationales, 01 3621). Fontanieu designed this series to serve as a model for the manufactures, notably Sèvres. The models are imposing in their pure contours and ornamentation, representative of neo-classicism: "twenty of these pieces represent complete Vases with all their ornaments, and the other twenty only the profile of these same vases indicated by a single line" (Guilmard). Fontanieu was also an expert in chemistry and mechanical engineering. His tools were so powerful that Louis XVI bought them for his own use in 1780. No other copy of this richly bound book is known to be in private hands. BIBLIOGRAPHY : Guilmard, p. 233, no. 42 (erroneously listed under the father's name, Gaspard-Moïse de Fontanieu) -- Cohen-de Ricci, 407 (cites only the copy in the Ferdinand de Rothschild collection, also bound in "maroquin rouge ancien") -- Berlin Kat., 1089 -- Eriksen 1984, p. 180 -- Jervis 1984, p. 186