Collection des Vases Grecs de M.r le Comte de Lamberg, expliquée et publiée par le Comte de Laborde
sold
- Subjects
- Archaeology, Greek & Roman
- Art - Collectors and collecting - Lamberg-Sprinzenstein (Anton Franz de Paula), 1740-1822
- Vase-painting, Greek
- Authors/Creators
- Laborde, Alexandre Louis Joseph de, Comte, 1773-1842
- Artists/Illustrators
- Piringer, Benedikt, 1780-1826
- Schütz, Carl, 1745-1800
- Printers/Publishers
- Didot, Jules, active 1822-1841?
- Didot, Pierre, active 1785-1822
- Other names
- Francis I, Emperor of Austria, 1768-1835
- Lamberg-Sprinzenstein, Anton Franz de Paula, 1740-1822
Laborde, Alexandre Louis Joseph de, comte
1773 – 1842
Collection des Vases Grecs de M.r le Comte de Lamberg, expliquée et publiée par le Comte de Laborde.
Paris, De l’imprimerie de Didot l’ainé (volume II: ‘Imprimerie De Jules Didot Ainé’), 1813 [–1829]
Two volumes, folio (570 × 435 mm):
I: (55) ff. letterpress, signed π1 (half-title) a–g1 1–471 and paginated (2) i–xiv 1–94, with eighteen colour-printed vignettes in text (numbered i–xvii; two different no. xii); plus title with aquatinted vignette with added hand-colouring, and sixty leaves carrying ninety-five numbered and lettered plates, all printed in colour.
II: (42) ff. letterpress, signed π1 (half-title) 2π1 (title) 1–401, with colour-printed vignette on title, fourteen colour-printed vignettes in text (unnumbered title-piece, nos. i–xiii); plus forty-six leaves carrying fifty-nine numbered and lettered plates (numbered i–l, i–ix), all printed in colour.
Occasional spotting in margins and on binder's tissue guardsheets; otherwise a fine copy.
bound in green morocco, decorated in gilt; pink glazed endleaves.
Magnificent catalogue of a selection of ancient vases in the vast collection belonging to the Austrian diplomat Anton Franz de Paula, Graf von Lamberg-Sprinzenstein (1740–1822). Formed substantially in Naples, during Count Lamberg’s term as envoy (17 December 1778–15 November 1784), and augmented after his return to Vienna,1 it grew to comprise more than 700 vases.2
In 1815, in a move to forestall an intended sale of the collection to Ludwig von Bayern,3 some 670 vases were purchased for the imperial museums by Franz i, Emperor of Austria, in return for 125,000 Guilders; those vases are now incorporated in the Kunsthistorisches Museum.4 Lamberg also sold or bequeathed a renowned collection of Italian paintings.5
The work appeared in eighteen livraisons; subscribers could choose between copies printed on papier vélin (priced 30 francs per fascicule), or copies on the same paper, but with the plates avant la lettre (priced 50 francs).6 The plates in all copies are aquatints printed in colour, using mainly black and ochre together with mauve, brown or grey. The first plate is a general view of the collection, engraved by Benedikt Piringer (1780–1826) after a watercolour executed in 1791 by Carl Schütz.7 One of the titles is indistinctly signed Dien (Claude Marie François Dien, 1773–1842); the other plates and vignettes are unsigned.
Copies known to the writer include
● Bologna, Biblioteca Comunale dell’Archiginnasio, 18 BB II 1–28 ● London, British Library, 1899.m.3 ● London, National Art Library, 96.S.12–13 ● London, Royal Academy of Arts ● Los Angeles, Getty Research Institute, NK4649 .L12 1813 ● Milan, Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense9 ● New York, Columbia University, Avery Library, AK3840 L17 FF ● New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Watson Library, 579.2 L17 F ● New York, New York Public Library, MPEK+++ (Laborde) ● Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce Prints a.38–3910 ● Paris Bibliothèque Nationale de France (six copies) ● Paris, Institut national d’histoire de l’art, Pl. Rés 27 (1–2) ● Unlocated (ex-H.M. Blackmer Collection)11 ● Unlocated (ex-Marquesses of Bath)12
references Georges Vicaire, Manuel de l’amateur de livres du xixe siècle, 1801–1893 (Paris 1900), iv, col. 747; Fabia Borroni, ‘Il Cicognara’. Bibliografia dell’ archeologia classica e dell’ arte italiana, ii/1 (Florence 1957), p.272 no. 658 (‘Esistono anche esemplari membranacei’); Leonora Navari, Greece and the Levant: the catalogue of the Henry Myron Blackmer collection of books and manuscripts (London 1989), p.196 no. 928
1. Cf. Elisabeth Trinkl, ‘Zwei Gefäße aus Athen aus dem Besitz des Grafen Anton von Lamberg-Sprinzenstein’ in Jahrbuch des Kunsthistorischen Museums Wien 8–9 (2006), pp.168–177, describing two vases excavated in Athens in 1812 by P.O. Brøndsted and presented to Count Lamberg in 1813.
2. Rudolf Noll, ‘Wiener Antikensammlungen im 18. Jahrhundert’ in Antikensammlungen im 18. Jahrhundert, edited by Herbert Beck (Berlin 1981), pp.234, 236; Kurt Gschwantler, ‘Antikensammlungen unter den Habsburgern im Wien des 18. Jhs.’ in Antikensammlungen des europäischen Adels im 18. Jahrhundert als Ausdruck einer europäischen Identität, edited by Dietrich Boschung and Henner von Hesberg (Mainz 2000), p.165.
3. Alfred Berhard-Walcher, ‘Zu den Anfangen der Münchner Vasensammlung im frühen 19. Jahrhundert’ in Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst 41 (1990), pp.12, 21 (note 35); Alfred Bernhard-Walcher, ‘Die Wiener Vasensammlung’ in Antike Welten. Meisterwerke griechischer Malerei aus dem Kunsthistorischen Museum Wien, edited by Meinrad Maria Grewenig (Ostfildern-Ruit 1997), pp.21–22.
4. For concordances, see Salomon Reinach, Répertoire des vases peints grecs et étrusques (Paris 1900), ii, pp.164–250; Frank Brommer, Konkordanzlisten zu alter Vasenliteratur (Marburg 1979), pp.73–81; Corpus vasorum antiquorum. Österreich. Wien. Kunsthistorisches Museum. Bd. 1–4, compiled by Fritz Eichler (Vienna 1951–1984), i, p.46; ii, p.36; iii, p.46 (concordances).
5. Roswitha Juffinger, ‘Counts Czernin von Chudenitz and Lamberg-Sprinzenstein: two illustrious Viennese collectors: notes for a new research’ in La circulation des oeuvres d’art = The circulation of the works of art in the revolutionary era, 1789–1848, edited by Roberta Panzanelli and Monica Preti-Hamard (Rennes 2007), pp.117–123.
6. The first livraison is recorded in the Bibliographie de l’Empire Français, Tome troisième, no. 4, 22 January 1813, p.27 no. 141, and announces an edition of 300 copies; the completed work is listed in Bibliographie de la France, Dix-huitième année, no. 10, 7 March 1829, p.155 no. 1381 (‘Livraisons 1 à 18, en deux cahiers in-folio, ensemble de 96 feuilles et 107 planche’).
7. The drawing is Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, AS Inv. xiv 73 (550 × 840 mm); see reproductions in Noll, op. cit., p.235 Abb. 2; and Alfred Bernhard-Walcher, Schätze des Österreichischen Kaiserhauses: Meisterwerke aus der Antikensammlung des Kunsthistorischen Museums in Wien, catalogue of an exhibition held at the Landesmuseum, Mainz (Vienna 1994), p.12 no. 3 Abb. 17.
8. L’immagine dell’antico fra settecento e ottocento. Libri di archeologia nella biblioteca Comunale dell’Archiginnasio, catalogue of an exhibition (Bologna 1983), pp.148–150 no. 8.
9. Fabrizio Slavizzi, ‘I vasi antichi nei libri fra Settecento e Ottocento’ in Miti greci: archeologia e pittura dalla Magna Grecia al collezionismo, catalogue of an exhibition, Palazzo Reale, Milan, 3 October 2004–16 January 2005, edited by Gemma Sena Chiesa and Ermanno A. Arslan (Milan 2004), pp.93, 94 no. 69.
10. Catalogue of the printed books and manuscripts bequeathed by Francis Douce (Oxford 1840), p.153; Universal catalogue of books on art (London 1870), p.1065.
11. Sotheby’s, ‘The library of Henry Myron Blackmer ii, sold by order of the executor’, London, 11–13 October 1989, lot 758 (sold £7000).
12. Christie, Manson & Woods, ‘Printed books and manuscripts from Beriah Botfield’s library at Longleat’, London, 13 June 2002, lot 94.