Recueil d'estampes representant les differents evenemens de la Guerre qui a procuré l'Indépendance aux Etats unis de l'Amérique
Paris: Ponce & Godefroy[, ca. 1784]. First edition.
Quarto (10 ¾” x 9 ¼”, 273mm x 235mm): with 16 engraved plates: a title,[1] 12 vignettes, 2 maps and a précis. Each with a tissue-guard.
Bound in contemporary marbled calf with a triple gilt fillet border. On the spine, six panels. Title (“EVENEMENTS/ DE LA GUERR/ D’AMERIQUE”) gilt to black calf in the second panel. Double gilt fillet to the edges of the boards. Gilt inside dentelle. Marbled end-papers. All edges of the text-block gilt. Celadon silk marking ribbon. Presented in a marbled-paper slip-case.
Hinges split but joints remain strong and intact. Rubbing generally (in part at the acid-etching of the calf) with wear at the corners, head and tail. Foxed, though mostly to the tissue-guards. Bookplates of the Military Collection of Anne S. K. Brown and of Howard C. Rice, Jr. to the front paste-down. Presentation inscription (“Newport, 26 July, 1972”) “To Howard Rice/ In memory of our joint/ journey to Yorktown and return/ Affectionately/ Anne Brown” in ink manuscript to the recto of the second free end-paper.
After the British defeat at Saratoga 17 October 1777, it became clear to the powers of the world that the cause of American Independence had a material chance of success. Less than a month later, the Continental Congress ratified “The United States of America” as the name of the newborn nation, and, a month later the French — in a major blow to their longtime British rival — recognized the name and the diplomatic independence of the revolutionary state. By 6 February 1778, the Treaty of Alliance was signed between France and the Second Continental Congress, formalizing the French support of the revolutionary government in America and spurring both military support as well as broader French interest in the region (and the outcome).
The present set of engravings, cut and published by Nicolas Ponce (1746–1831) and François Godefroy (1743–1819), depict the American Revolution — or, as the title so fittingly puts it, “the different events of the War that have procured independence for the United States of America” — for a French audience — witness to the end of hostilities at the 1783 Treaty of Paris (and Versailles); the date of the book is surmised from the inclusion of a précis of that treaty, which was signed in September of 1783 and took effect in November — hungry for change. Though many of the intellectual antecedents of American independence were French, the Americans were the first to act; French (royal) support of the revolutionary cause must be one of history’s great ironies.
Some of Ponce and Godefroy’s key events may be surprising. Yes, there is Lexington and Saratoga, but there is a particular focus on French achievements and French territories: the 1778 capture of Dominica, the 1779 capture of Grenada, even the surrender of the English to the French in 1779 in Senegal (reversed in 1783). Although the makers of the book have aristocratic connections — Ponce is engraver to the comte d’Artois, Godefroy to the King — a revolutionary spirit pulses through the volume, a glimpse of how the French behave when they fight for freedom from oppression.
The volume was owned by Mrs. Anne Seddon Kinsolving Brown (1906–1985), who married John Nicholas Brown II, from the Brown family of Rhode Island after which the distinguished Ivy-League university is named. Mrs. Brown was perhaps the greatest collector of military material, from toy soldiers to books such as the present volume and even uniforms, which is now housed in the John Hay Library at Brown University. Mrs. Brown gave our volume as a gift in 1972 to Dr. Howard Crosby Rice, Jr. (1904–1980), in memory of a trip to Yorktown — probably made in the course of their collaboration on the publication of the translation of three French military diaries from the period: The American Campaigns of Rochambeau’s Army. Dr. Rice was the director of rare books and special collections at Princeton University 1948–1970, though his papers for the monumental Thomas Jefferson’s Paris (1976) are held at Monticello.
Cohen-de Ricci 862; Howes C 576; Sabin 68421.
[1] Howes refers to an engraved title-page (beginning “Collection d’estampes…” rather than “Recueil…”), and that another issue was issued without it (as here). All four Arader examples of the book have no separate title.
Item #JLR0637
Price: $7,250