Description des Principales Pierres Gravés Collection Duc d‘Orléans COCHIN / ST.AUBIN 2 vols. Paris 1780-84 Édition originale illustrée d’un frontispice gravé par Saint-Aubin d’après Cochin daté 1778, d’un fleuron de titre répété sur les deux tomes, de 28 vignettes et culs-de-lampe, dont un gravé par Eléonore de Sabran, et de 179 figures gravées sur cuivre.

https://0700polygraf.blogspot.com/2022/11/0700-buch-wwwpolygraficumde.html https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2022/livres-et-manuscrits/description-des-pierres-gravees-1780-1784-2-vol Édition originale illustrée d’un frontispice gravé par Saint-Aubin d’après Cochin daté 1778, d’un fleuron de titre répété sur les deux tomes, de 28 vignettes et culs-de-lampe, dont un gravé par Eléonore de Sabran, et de 179 figures gravées sur cuivre.

The collection was bought by Catherine II of Russia in 1787 and is now in the Hermitage. The work was edited by the celebrated antiquaries Abbé Geraud de La Chau, librarian and keeper of the collection for the Duc d'Orléans, and Abbé Gaspard Michel, called Le Blond, sub-librarian at the College Mazarin. "Jacques-Gabriel de Saint-Aubin drew and engraved nearly all plates and vignettes. With minute exactness he provided 179 representations of the gems themselves, and to these he added fifty-five tailpieces in which he set down the fancies to which these remnants of the past had given rise in his mind." (Ray). The members of the House of Orleans were, for the most part, avid collectors. Gaston of Orléans (1608-1660), the brother of Louis XIII, acquired a large part of the gems collected by the painter Pierre-Paul Rubens. His collection was bequeathed to Louis XIV in 1661. It is now in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. After the death of his mother Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine, the Regent, Philip II of Orleans, came into possession of her famous dactyliothèque. His son, Duke Louis of Orléans (1703-1752), did not want it to be dispersed, so he bought it and, in 1741, included it in Pierre Crozat's collection and gave it, along with his collection of gold coins, to the monks of Saint-Geneviève Abbey, close to where he retired. On the death of his father, the Duke of Orléans Louis-Philippe (1725-1785), bought the gems from the abbey of Sainte-Geneviève where they were kept and brought them to the Palais-Royal. The collection declined somewhat, but he did, however, publish this magnificent work of two volumes. His son, Louis Philippe II, known as Égalité (1747-1793), owned it for only two years. In 1787, after publishing a catalogue of sales (1786), he sold it through Melchior Grimm to the Russian empress Catherine II. https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5726072 cf. MUSEUM of FINE ARTS BOSTON cf. INVALUABLE https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/la-chau-abbe-geraud-de-gaspard-michel-abbe-le-blo-214-c-97d40cca00 LaChau, Géraud de [Hrsg.]; Le Blond [Hrsg.]; Orléans, Louis Philippe d' [Samml.] Description Des Principales Pierres Gravées Du Cabinet De S. A. S. Monseigneur Le Duc D'Orleans, Premier Prince Du Sang (2 vols) Folio, Paris, 1780-84 [Cicognara, 2801-1] cf. Heidelberger Historische Bestände Universitäts Bibliothek Heidelberg https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/orleons1780ga collection HELM&HELM sammlung cf. CHRISTIE'S SALE extraits des planches et cuivres culs-de-lampes :: cochin/st.aubin