Peintures De Vases Antiques Vulgairement Appelés Étrusques Tirées De Différentes Collections Et Gravées Par A. Clener Accompagnées D'Explications Par A. L. Millin Membre De L'Institut Et De La Légion D'Honneur Publiées Par M. Dubois Maisonneuve Tome Premier [-Second)

Paris, P. Didot, l’aîné, 1808-1810

A finely-bound copy of Millin’s catalogue of about 120 vases, for the most part in private Parisian collections. The 150 large plates reproduce outline drawings of the designs on the vases. Millin’s draughtsman was Angelo Cléner, the pupil or associate of J.H.W. Tischbein, who had collaborated with Tischbein in the second Hamilton publication; some of the plates may be Cléner’s copies of unpublished plates for that publication.

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Subjects: Archaeology, Greek & Roman; Art - Collectors and collecting - French collections, 19th century; Vase-painting, Greek
Authors/Creators: Millin [de Grandmaison], Aubin-Louis, 1759-1818
Artists/Illustrators: Cléner, Antoine (Angelo), active c. 1790-c. 1811
Printers/Publishers: Didot, Pierre, active 1785-1822
Other names: Dubois Maisonneuve, A., active 18-19th centuries; Durand, Edmé Antoine,‏ ‎1768-1835; Golovina, Varvara Nikolaevna (née Princess Galitzine), 1766-1821; Hope, Thomas, 1769-1831; Joséphine, Empress, consort of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1763-1814; Pourtalès-Gorgier, James-Alexandre, Comte de, 1776-1855; Tischbein, Johann Heinrich Wilhelm, 1751-1829

Millin, Aubin-Louis
Paris 1759 – 1818 Paris

Peintures De Vases Antiques Vulgairement Appelés Étrusques Tirées De Différentes Collections Et Gravées Par A. Clener Accompagnées D'Explications Par A. L. Millin Membre De L'Institut Et De La Légion D'Honneur Publiées Par M. Dubois Maisonneuve Tome Premier [–Second].

Paris, Pierre Didot, l’aîné, 1808–1810

Two volumes, folio (555 × 420 mm):

I: (75) ff. letterpress, signed π¹ (half-title)²π¹ (dedication, A sa Majesté L’Impératrice-Reine) ³π¹ (Avertissement de l’Éditeur) a–k¹1–62¹ and paginated (6) i–xx 1–124, with two etched vignettes printed with the text; plus engraved title-page and seventy-two numbered engraved plates (pl. xiv misnumbered, several plates bound out of sequence), of which three plates are double-page or folding (xxv, xxvi, lxvii). (In both volumes, plates are bound out of sequence where gathered in groups, when the higher numbers precede the lower.)

II: (74) ff. letterpress, signed π¹(half-title) 1–73¹ and paginated (2) 1–146; plus engraved title-page and seventy-eight numbered engraved plates (pl. xlix misnumbered; several plates bound out of sequence), of which one plate is double-page, and five are folding.

binding contemporary russia leather, decorated in gilt.

A finely-bound copy of Millin’s catalogue of about 120 vases, for the most part in private collections, including those of Aubourg de Boury; Féréol Bonnemaison; Edmé Antoine Durand; Countess Varvara Nikolaevna Golovina, née Princess Galitzine; Thomas Hope; Salvatore Lettieri, Bishop of Nardo, Gallipoli and Castellaneta; Jean-Philippe-Guy le Gentil, comte de Paroy; Comte James Alexandre de Pourtalès-Gorgier; Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult; J.H.W. Tischbein; Joseph-François Tochon d’Annecy; and Claude Madeleine Grivaud de la Vincelle. The dedication in Volume i is from the publisher Dubois-Maisonneuve to ‘L’Impératrice-Reine’ (Napoleon’s first consort, Joséphine de Beauharnais), and a large number of her vases are described and illustrated.¹

A number of vases are identifiable in permanent collections in Brussels,² Chantilly,³ London,⁴ Los Angeles,⁵ Naples,⁶ New York,⁷ Paris,⁸ St. Petersburg,⁹ Vienna,¹⁰ and on the art market.¹¹

The plates show outline drawings of the designs on the vases. Millin’s draughtsman was Angelo Cléner, the pupil or associate of J.H.W. Tischbein, who had collaborated with Tischbein in the second Hamilton publication.¹² Some of the plates are believed to be Cléner’s copies of unpublished plates for that publication.¹³

The book was published in twenty-five livraisons, with the plates available either plain or coloured (priced respectively 15 and 45 francs per livraison).¹⁴ According to Brunet, a new edition appeared in 1816 (reissue of original sheets with cancel title-pages).¹⁵ Reinach republished the plates of the work in reduced format with abridged descriptions.¹⁶

Copies known to the writer include these

● Bologna, Biblioteca Comunale dell’Archiginnasio¹⁷ ● London, Royal Academy of Arts ● London, Royal Institute of British Architects, British Architectural Library ● Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, (twelve copies, of which Rés. J.1011 and J.1012 have plates in colour) ● Unlocated (ex-H.M. Blackmer Collection)¹⁸ ● Unlocated (ex-Marquesses of Bath)¹⁹ ● Unlocated (ex-Sotheby’s, London, 7 May 2009, lot 45)

references Fabia Borroni, ‘Il Cicognara’. Bibliografia dell’ archeologia classica e dell’ arte italiana, ii/1 (Florence 1957), pp.269–270 no. 645; The Age of neo-classicism: [catalogue of] the fourteenth exhibition of the Council of Europe [held at] the Royal Academy and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 9 September–19 November, 1972 ([London] 1972), no. 918; Leonora Navari, Greece and the Levant: the catalogue of the Henry Myron Blackmer collection of books and manuscripts (London 1989), no. 1129; Early printed books, 1478–1840: catalogue of the British Architectural Library Early Imprints Collection (London 1999), iii, pp.1145–1146 no. 2143

Image

1. More than thirty vases in Joséphine’s collection at Malmaison are reproduced by Millin. See Eye of Josephine: the antiquities collection of the empress in the Musée du Louvre, catalogue of an exhibition held 11 October 2007–18 May 2008 at the High Museum, Atlanta, edited by Martine Denoyelle and Sophie Descamps-Lequime (Atlanta & Paris 2007), pp.21–22 and pp.46–69 nos. 2–13, pp.76–79 nos. 17–18, pp.84–85 nos. 22–23, p.175 nos. 70–72, pp.177–178 nos. 76–80, pp.181–186 nos. 86, 88–90, 94–95, 97.

2. Musée Royale d’Art et Histoire, Brussels. Plate ii, 51: R 407 (ex-Malmaison and Herry collections).

3. Musée Condé, Chantilly. Plates i, 10–11: (Beazley 215581).

4. British Museum, London. Plates ii, 13: e492 (1865,0103.52); ii, 67–68: 1917,1210.1; ii, 78/4: f232 (1814,0704.566, ex-Charles Townley).

5. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Plate i, 49–50: 50.8.16.

6. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples. Plates i, 3: H. 2873; i, 25–26: 81669 (h. 2422); i, 47: 82694 (H. 952); ii, 10: 82477 (H. 2960). Cf. Heinrich Heydemann, Die Vasensammlungen des Museo Nazionale zu Neapel (Berlin 1872).

7. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Plates ii, 11/1: 66.79; ii, 25–27: 56.171.63; ii, 61: 47.11.5.

8. Musée du Louvre, Paris. Plates i, 5: g559; i, 6: g516; i, 7: k55; i, 9: g421; i, 13: k323; i, 14–16: n3159 (k67); i, 17: g351; i, 24: g527; i, 30–31: g486; i, 43: g526; i, 45/1: g528; i, 46/1: g515; i, 48: g492; i, 51: k238; i, 53: g514; i, 60: g511; i, 64: k328; i, 67: n2821 (ed180); i, 68–69: k537; i, 70/1–2: g494. Plates ii, 7–8: n3157; ii, 12: k239; ii, 16: k128; ii, 17: k240; ii, 21: k243; 22/1: g356; ii, 23: k247; ii, 33: k73; ii, 41: g203; ii, 45: g639; ii, 50: k311; ii, 52: k388; ii, 53–54: ll610; ii, 57: k240; ii, 58: g521; ii, 59: n3486 (ed936); ii, 62: k344; ii, 63: g252; ii, 65: n2651 (ed104); ii, 66/1: g404; ii, 71: k538; ii, 72: k14; ii, 73–74: k536; ii, 75: f386. Cabinet des Médailles, Paris. Plates i, 54: 429; ii, 34: 374.

9. Hermitage, St. Petersburg. Plates i, 23: 358; i, 58–59: St. 812; ii, 30: 1178.

10. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Plates i, 12: 697; i, 27: 948 (sk 219,85); ii, 24: 1103; ii, 28: 460 (sk 182,171); ii, 78/6: 634.

11. Art market. Plate i, 34: Christie’s, 28 November 1979, lot 52 (ex-Hope collection; E.M.W. Tillyard, The Hope Vases: a catalogue, Cambridge 1923, no. 131).

12. William Hamilton, Collection of engravings from ancient vases mostly of pure Greek workmanship discovered in sepulchres in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies but chiefly in the neighbourhood of Naples during the course of the years mdcclxxxix and mdcclxxxx now in the possession of Sir W. Hamilton with remarks on each vase by the collector (Naples 1791–1797).

13. Early printed books, 1478–1840: catalogue of the British Architectural Library Early Imprints Collection (London 1999), pp.1145–1146 (compare no. 3320).

14. André Monglond, La France révolutionnaire et impériale: Annales de bibliographie méthodique et description des livres illustrés, vii (Paris 1953), col. 1053. Joseph-Marie Quérard, La France littéraire, ou, Dictionnaire bibliographique (Paris 1834), vi, p.138: ‘Quelques exempl. de la première édition, avec les fig. coloriées au pinceau avec le plus grand soin, 1125 fr’.

15. Jacques-Charles Brunet, Manuel du libraire et de l'amateur de livres (Paris 1861), ii, col. 848.

16. Salomon Reinach, Peintures de vases antiques recueillies par Millin (1808) et Millingen (1813) (Paris 1891).

17. L’immagine dell’antico fra settecento e ottocento. Libri di archeologia nella biblioteca Comunale dell’Archiginnasio, catalogue of an exhibition (Bologna 1983), pp.147–148 no.7 (three reproductions).

18. Sotheby’s, ‘The library of Henry Myron Blackmer ii, sold by order of the executor’, London, 11–13 October 1989, lot 837 (sold £1700).

19. Christie, Manson & Woods, ‘Printed books and manuscripts from Beriah Botfield’s library at Longleat, sold by order of the trustees of the Longleat Chattels Settlement’, London, 13 June 2002, lot 104 (plates in both states, plain and hand-coloured; sold £20,000).

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