Les Liliacées; par P.J. Redouté
Ex-coll. Denis, duc Decrès
Napoleon’s Minister of the Navy
Eight volumes. Paris: printed for the author by Imprimerie de Didot jeune. (An X.) 1802–1816. First edition, first state.
Folio (21 1/8” x 14”, 538mm x 355mm).
Vol. I: 2 binder’s blanks, π-4π2, 1-601 60*2, binder’s blank [$1 signed]. 70 leaves, pp. [6] (half-title, list of booksellers, title-page, blank, dedication, blank), i-ij (discours préliminaire), [60] (text to 60 plates), [4] (additions and corrigenda, French table, Latin table, blank). With an etched portrait frontispiece of Redouté (Pradier after Gerard) and 60 polychrome stipple-engraved plates.
Vol. II: binder’s blank, π2, 61-1201 120*2, binder’s blank [$1 signed]. 64 leaves, pp. [4] (half-title, blank, title, blank), [60] (text to 60 plates), [4] (additions and corrections, French table, Latin table, blank). With 60 polychrome stipple-engraved plates.
Vol. III: binder’s blank, π2, 121-1801 180*2, binder’s blank [$1 signed]. 64 leaves, pp. [4] (half-title, blank, title, blank), [60] (text to 60 plates), [4] (additions and corrections, French table, Latin table, blank). With 60 polychrome stipple-engraved plates.
Vol. IV: binder’s blank, π2, 181-2401, 240*1, binder’s blank [$1 signed]. 63 leaves, pp. [4] (half-title, blank, title, blank), [60] (text to 60 plates), [2] (French table, Latin table). With 60 polychrome stipple-engraved plates.
Vol. V: binder’s blank, π2, 241-3001, 300*1, binder’s blank [$1 signed]. 63 leaves, pp. [4] (half-title, blank, title, blank), [60] (text to 60 plates), [2] (French table, Latin table). With 60 polychrome stipple-engraved plates.
Vol. VI: binder’s blank, π2, 301-3601, 360*2, binder’s blank [$1 signed]. 64 leaves, pp. [4] (half-title, blank, title, blank), [60] (text to 60 plates), [4] (additions and corrections, French table, Latin table, blank). With 60 polychrome stipple-engraved plates.
Vol. VII: binder’s blank, π2, 361-369 “370 et 371” 372-4201, 420*2, binder’s blank [$1 signed]. 62 leaves, pp. [4] (half-title, blank, title, blank), [58] (text to 59 plates, with three plates (of which one is double) described on one leaf), [4] (2pp. additions and corrections, French table, Latin table). With 57 polychrome stipple-engraved plates, one folding polychrome stipple-engraved plate and one (372) monochrome engraved plate, as issued.
Vol. VIII: binder’s blank, π2, 421-4861, 486*1, 21-32 χ1, binder’s blank [$1 signed]. 76 leaves, pp. [4] (half-title, blank, title, blank), [66] (text to 67 plates), [2] (French table, Latin table), 1 2-14 (8pp. Latin table, 6pp. French table). With 67 (421-427, 427 (a second state of Narcissus laetus), 428, 428 (corrected in pencil manuscript to 429), 430-486) polychrome stipple-engraved plates.
With an etched portrait frontispiece and 486 plates: 484 polychrome stipple-engraved plates, 1 folding polychrome stipple-engraved plate (370-371) and 1 monochrome engraved plate (372).
Bound in contemporary red straight-grained morocco (over an earlier, darker red morocco; rebacked). On the boards, a gilt roll border. On the spine, seven panels separated with triple gilt fillets. In the first, third, fifth, sixth and seventh panels, a gilt floral surrounded with gilt ornaments. Title gilt to the second panel. Number gilt to the fourth panel. Fore- and bottom edges of the text-block untrimmed. With tissue guards for each plate.
Rebacked. A handful of leaves (text and plates) in various volumes loose and laid in. Upper front fore-corner of vol. III and upper rear fore-corner of vol. IV strongly bumped. Fore-edges of vol. VIII with a bump. General wear to the extremities. Mostly clean internally; voll. VI-VIII with some tanning to the preliminaries and final leaves (pronounced in vol. VII, else mild or moderate). Bookplate of “De crés” on the front paste-downs of voll. I-V.
Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759–1840) floated above the political changes in France. He went from the patronage of Marie Antoinette — made desinatteur du Cabinet de la Reine in 1788 — to the dedication in the first volume (marked “year 10” of the revolutionary calendar) to “Citoyen Chaptal,” back to the patronage of the Empress Josephine and on through the Restoration; doubtless had he lived into the Second Republic he would have found great favor. He haunted the gardens first of the Petit Trianon and then superintended those at the chateau of Malmaison in Rueil (just south of Paris), which Josephine had bought. Provided with the raw materials by these extraordinary women, Redouté set about illustrating.
The originals — executed in watercolor on vellum, which Arader handled — were translated into multi-color stipple-engraving; Redouté is said to have introduced the technique to France. Borrowed from Bartolozzi, it allowed faithful reproduction of color, rather than depending on the vagaries of individual colorists, making the book not only beautiful but reliable. The technique is intensely laborious, and only about two hundred sets were made, with additional large-paper copies finished by Redouté himself.
The title is somewhat misleading, since the work includes flowers from other families (irises, orchids, etc.), but Redouté’s curiosity and ambition can be excused. The work stretched 14 years, with 80 fascicles of 6 plates apiece (the 80th having 12). Plate 95 (Tradescantia virginica) is here present in its first state (titled Commelina erecta) and Narcissus laetus is present in two states: Langlois’s and Bessin’s.
Denis, duc Decrès (de Crès, 1761–1820) was a sailor in the French royal navy before a brief detention during the Revolution, followed by an ascent through the ranks (eventually to vice-admiral) under Napoleon, serving as ministre de la Marine. Decrès fought in Egypt and Malta before being created a count and then, in 1813, a duke. The presence of his plates in voll. I-V only, as well as the rebinding of morocco over morocco, suggests a complex history of ownership.
Dunthorne 231, Nissen BBI 1597, Stafleu-Cowan 8747.
Item #6JLR0147
Price: $435,000