LA BILLARDERIE, Charles Claude Flahaut de, dit le comte d'An - Lot 102

LA BILLARDERIE, Charles Claude Flahaut de, dit le comte d'Angiviller Explanation des Peintures, Sculptures et Gravures de Messieurs de l'Académie royale dont l'exposition a été ordonnée (...) par M. le comte de la Billardrie [sic] d'Angiviller... Paris, Veuve Hérissant, 1781 A SUPERB COPY OF THE 1781 SALON CATALOG. BEAUTIFUL GILDED AUGSBURG PAPER BINDING WITH FLORAL PATTERN ORIGINAL EDITION In-12 (159 x 94 mm). Small vignette of the royal coat of arms on the title page, woodcut head and tailpieces. COLLATION: 56 pp. and (1) f. CONTEMPORARY BINDING. Red morocco, large gilt plate decoration, ornate long spine, gilt Augsburg paper endpapers with pistachio-green floral motifs, gilt edges. The ornamental plate on this copy is attributable to Pierre-Paul Dubuisson (1707-c. 1762). For another copy of Explication des Peintures (1783) bound in the same manner with comparable endpapers, see Paris, March 12, 2021, no. 159. This decorated binding was probably intended for present-day copies. In the 1780s, up to a thousand people a day attended the salon (35,000 in 1781 alone). The event contributed to the emergence of a critical space, amplified by Diderot's European coverage in Grimm's Correspondance littéraire, historique et critique. The hanging had a special role, and this little booklet served as a guide: "each piece is marked with a number corresponding to the one in the book. To facilitate research, we have interrupted the order of the ranks of Messieurs de l'Académie, & the works are arranged under the general divisions of Paintings, Sculptures & Engravings". WEBOGRAPHY: on Dubuisson see: https://reliures.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cdt9x13h/