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 ½” x 9”, 270mm x 235mm): with 16 engraved plates: a title,[1] 12 vignettes, 2 maps and a précis. Each with a tissue guard.
Bound in quarter brown calf over blue paste-paper. Spine blank. Ingres-blue end-papers.
Rubbed generally, with patches of wear. Evidence of damp at the upper edges of both boards. Persistent worm-holes at the gutter, not affecting the images. Light foxing, mainly to tissue guards. Bookplate of Jose Salvator de Lequerica to the first plate. Ink presentation inscription (dated [19]45) in Spanish from Lequerica to Norman Armour to the recto of the first tissue guard.
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.
José Félix Salvator de Lequerica (1891–1963) was a Spanish lawyer, diplomat and politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs 1944–1945. He was particularly involved in the Franco-Spanish relations. He went on to serve as Ambassador to the United States between 1951 and 1954, and was influential in the drafting of the Pact of Madrid. He was Spain’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations 1956–1963. Norman Armour (1887–1982), an American career foreign service officer (once described by the New York Times as “the perfect diplomat”), came to know Lequerica when he was was an American ambassador to Spain (his telegrams reveal more hesitancy than the gift might suggest). He was additionally ambassador to Haiti, Canada, Chile, Argentina, Venezuela and Guatemala.
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 #SJF0026
Price: $5,200