CARBURI DE CEFFALONIE, Marin - Lot 94

CARBURI DE CEFFALONIE, Marin Monument élevé à la gloire de Pierre-Le-Grand, ou Relation des travaux et des moyens mechaniques qui ont été employés... Paris, Nyon aîné, Stoupe, 1777 A SUPERB COPY FOR MARIE-ANTOINETTE, BOUND IN MOROCCO WITH HER COAT OF ARMS. IT LATER JOINED THE COLLECTIONS OF THE COMTE DE LA BÉRAUDIÈRE, JACQUES HENNESSY AND PAUL-LOUIS WEILLER. EXEMPLAIRE CITED BY OLIVIER-HERMAL-DE ROTON ORIGINAL EDITION In-folio (433 x 278mm). Engraved headband, vignette and fleurons. COLLATION: A-M2, i.e. 24 leaves followed by 12 numbered plates ILLUSTRATION: 12 double-page or folding plates etched by R. Delvaux and Sellier after drawings by L.-N. Van Blarenbergh and Fossier. CONTEMPORARY BINDING. Red morocco, gilded decoration, coat of arms in the center of the boards, framed fillets, ornate ribbed spine, gilded edges. PROVENANCE : Marie-Antoinette, Queen of France (1755-1793; arms) -- comte de La Béraudière (1885 sale) -- Jacques Hennessy (July 3, 1929, no. 148) -- Librairie Pierre Chrétien (label) -- Paul-Louis Weiller (Paris, April 8, 2011, lot 672) Slight traces of rubbing on spine This work describes the transport of the granite block destined to form the base of the equestrian statue of Peter the Great in St. Petersburg. The statue had been commissioned by Catherine II from the French sculptor Étienne Falconet. The base, a boulder weighing 600 tons and measuring 11 x 6 x 7 meters in height, came from the Gulf of Finland. The block was moved to the seaside, over hills, using ingenious devices such as copper spheres rolling on wooden rails and teams of hundreds of muzhiks pulling cables to the beat of drums. From there, a huge raft lashed between two ships carried the rock across the sea to the mouth of the Neva in St. Petersburg. This statue of Peter the Great, on his Finnish rock, still dominates St. Petersburg's Senate Square (called "Decembrist Square" after the revolution), facing the Neva. Marin Carburi (1729-1782), a Greek engineer in the service of Catherine II, returned to France after this mission and had this beautifully illustrated work printed. He then returned to Celaphonia (then under the control of Venice) to develop agriculture, but was murdered by his workers in 1782. BIBLIOGRAPHY: OHR, 2508, fer 8 citing this copy -- Berlin Katalog, no. 1794 -- Pierre-Charles Levesque, Encyclopédie méthodique. Beaux-Arts, 1788, pp. 262-263 -- Hoefer, VIII, col. 679 -- copy not cited in Quentin-Bauchart