Plate II: (top) Red-figured calix-krater depicting Cadmus fighting the dragon (now Louvre N3157); (bottom left) Lost amphora (ex-Hamilton’s second collection, IV, pl. 29); (bottom right) Black-figured neck-amphora (ex-Hamilton’s first collection; now British Museum 1772,0320.5*)

View larger

Dubois-Maisonneuve ([A.])

Introduction à l’étude des vases antiques d’argile peints, vulgairement appelés Étrusques: accompagnée d’une collection des plus belles formes, ornées de leurs peintures suivie de planches la plupart inédites pour servir de supplément aux différents recueils de ces monuments

Paris, Pierre Didot l’ainé, 1817 [-1834]

Rare hand-coloured issue of a lavish catalogue of Greek vases, selected from more than twenty collections, including some already dispersed, such as those of Sir William Hamilton (1772, 1801) and Anton Franz de Paula, Graf von Lamberg-Sprinzenstein (1815). The majority of the vases, however, came onto the market during the long course of publication, as the collections formed by Joseph-François Tochon d’Annecy (1818), Sir John Thomas Coghill, Bt (1819), Jean Philippe Guy Le Gentil, comte de Paroy (1824), Joséphine de Beauharnais at Malmaison (1824), and Edmé Antoine Durand (1825, 1836) were scattered. Many vases are identifiable in permanent collections, in Berlin, Boston, Cambridge, Liverpool, London, Los Angeles, Munich, Naples, New York, Oxford, Paris, Philadelphia, Providence, Vienna, and elsewhere.

sold

Place Search request

Remove bookmark Add bookmark

Books sent to some EU destinations are experiencing customs delays

Commentary/Full text
Index

pdf (3.12 MB)

Subjects: Archaeology, Greek & Roman; Vase-painting, Greek
Authors/Creators: Dubois-Maisonneuve, A., active 18th-19th centuries
Artists/Illustrators: Dubois, Léon-Jean-Joseph, 1780-1846
Printers/Publishers: Didot, Pierre, active 1785-1822
Other names: Blacas d'Aulps, Pierre-Louis-Jean-Casimir, Duc de, 1771-1839; Brocchi, Luigi, 1770-1837; Coghill, John Thomas, 1766-1817; Durand, Edmé Antoine,‏ ‎1768-1835; Hamilton, William, Sir, 1730-1803; Hope, Thomas, 1769-1831; Joséphine, Empress, consort of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1763-1814; Lamberg-Sprinzenstein, Anton Franz de Paula, 1740-1822; Paroy, Jean-Philippe-Gui Le Gentil, marquis de, 1750-1824; Pourtalès-Gorgier, James-Alexandre, Comte de, 1776-1855; Selenka, Philipp, 1803-1850; Tôchon, Joseph François, 1772-1820

Dubois-Maisonneuve, [A.]

Introduction à l’étude des vases antiques d’argile peints, vulgairement appelés Étrusques: accompagnée d’une collection des plus belles formes, ornées de leurs peintures suivie de planches la plupart inédites pour servir de supplément aux différents recueils de ces monuments.

Paris, Pierre Didot l’ainé, 1817 (–1834)

broadsheet folio (578 × 423 mm), (26) ff. letterpress, signed π¹(half-title) ²π¹ (title) 1–24¹ and paginated (4) 1–48; plus 101 numbered engravings and lithographs on ninety-seven plates, of which four plates folding (nos. xvii, xxii, xliii, xliv). All the plates are hand-coloured except for three (nos. xcv, xcvi, xcvii).

Occasional light spotting, particularly tissue interleaves; otherwise a superb copy.

bound in green morocco, decorated in blind and gilt; engraved ticket on green paper Gebunden bei Ph. Selenka in Wiesbaden (see below); pink glazed endleaves.

Rare hand-coloured issue of a lavish catalogue of Greek vases, selected from more than twenty collections, including some already dispersed, such as those of Sir William Hamilton (1772, 1801) and Anton Franz de Paula, Graf von Lamberg-Sprinzenstein (1815). The majority of the vases came onto the market during the long course of publication, as collections formed by Joseph-François Tochon d’Annecy (1818), Sir John Thomas Coghill, Bt (1819), Jean Philippe Guy Le Gentil, comte de Paroy (1824), Joséphine de Beauharnais at Malmaison (1824), and Edmé Antoine Durand (1825, 1836) were scattered. Some of the vases were in collections which remained intact a while longer, such as those belonging to Jacques Alexandre, comte de Pourtalès-Gorgier (1865), Pierre Louis Jean Casimir, duc de Blacas d’Aulps (1866), and Thomas Hope (1917).

Image

(Plate ii) Top Red-figured calix-krater depicting Cadmus fighting the dragon (Louvre N 3157)
Bottom left Lost amphora (ex-Hamilton’s second collection, iv, pl. 29);
Bottom right Black-figured neck-amphora (ex-Hamilton’s first collection; British Museum 1772,0320.5*)

Image

(Plate xliii) Apulian volute-krater by the Sisyphus Painter (Munich, Inv. 3268)

Many of the vases are identifiable in permanent collections, in Berlin,¹ Boston,² Cambridge,³ Liverpool,⁴ London,⁵ Los Angeles,⁶ Munich,⁷ Naples,⁸ New York,⁹ Oxford,¹⁰ Paris,¹¹ Philadelphia,¹² Providence,¹³ Vienna,¹⁴ and elsewhere.

The plates were produced by anonymous printmakers, in part from drawings credited by Dubois-Maisonneuve to Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois (1780–1846).¹⁵ The author also acknowledges the assistance of Luigi Brocchi (1770–1837), the best vase restorer in Paris.¹⁶

The work was projected in an edition of 300 copies, to be issued in seven or eight livraisons of six plates accompanied by descriptive letterpress, each priced 18 francs on papier vélin, or 45 francs ‘avec les figures coloriées au pinceau’.¹⁷ The first part was published in July or August 1817;¹⁸ the last (seventeenth!) in 1834.¹⁹

Few complete copies are known:

● Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, gr.2º Nx 8234 (lost 1939–1945) ● Göttingen, GR 2 ARCH II, 3469 ● Halle/Saale, Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt, Eb 3762, 2º (95 plates only)²⁰ ● Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek, C 5829–1 Gross RES (101 plates)²¹ ● Leiden, Universiteits-bibliotheek, PLANO 10 B 1 ● London, British Library, 10 Tab 13 (74 plates only)²² ● London, National Art Library, Victoria & Albert Museum, 96.S.9 (87 plates only)²³ ● Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, 2 Arch. 95a ● Oxford, Bodleian Library, Mason EE 72 ● Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, four copies: J–176, Rés J–1023, Rés J–1010, GB–42 (B)–FOL ● Paris, Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, Pl VA 76 (14 livraisons, 87 plates) ● Princeton, University Library, K4654 .D826 1817e (91 plates only?)²⁴ ● Unlocated (ex-H.M. Blackmer Collection)²⁵

Image

This copy was bound by Philipp Selenka (1803–1850) of Wiesbaden, brother of Johann Jacob Selenka (1801–1871), Hofbuchbinder in Braunschweig.²⁶

references Ernest Vinet, Bibliographie méthodique et raisonnée des beaux-arts (Paris 1874), no 1540; Leonora Navari, Greece and the Levant: the catalogue of the Henry Myron Blackmer collection of books and manuscripts (London 1989), no. 499 (uncoloured copy)

1. Antikensammlung, Berlin. Plate 18/3: F. 2451; 34: F. 2137; 62/2: F. 1951; 66/1: 2008; 79/3: F. 3425. Cf. Adolf Furtwängler, Beschreibung der Vasensammlung in Antiquarium (Berlin 1885).

2. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Plate 25: 28.48. L.D. Caskey and J.D. Beazley, Attic Vase Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston 1931–1963), no. 101.

3. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Plate 54/3: G.R.9.1917 (ex-Hope collection; E.M.W. Tillyard, The Hope Vases: a catalogue, Cambridge 1923, no. 98).

4. Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool. Plate 20/1: 5040 (X 2143) (ex-Hope collection; Tillyard, op. cit., no. 233). Martin Robertson, Greek, Etruscan and Roman vases in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight (Liverpool 1987), p.45 no. 52.

5. British Museum, London. Plates 2/3: B17 (1772.0320.5*; this and five following vases ex-Hamilton’s first collection); 3: e224 (1772,0320.30.*); 7/4: f314 (1772,0320.23); 18/1: d22 (1772,0320.392); 27: b37 (1772,0320.6.*); 37/3: f307 (1772,0320.29.*); 60/2: b36 (1772.0320.342); 82/3: b130 (1842.0728.834, via Thomas Burgon).

6. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles. Plate 21/1: 50.8.29 (ex-Hope collection; Tillyard, op. cit., no. 211).

7. Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich. Plates 43–44: 3268 (J. 805); 56: 327 (J. 211); 81: 2416 (J. 753). Cf. Otto Jahn, Beschreibung der Vasensammlung König Ludwigs in der Pinakothek zu München (Munich 1854).

8. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples. Plate 30: H. 2200; 45–46: H. 2202; 50/2: H. 2875; 53/1–2: H. 2874, H. 2872; 54/2: H. 2848; 62/1: H. 2517; 68/1: H. 3127; 69: H. 2418; 72: H.2899;. 73: H. 3174; 74/1: H 1957; 76: H. 2192; 77/6: H. 3135; 93: H. 3174. Cf. Heinrich Heydemann, Die Vasensammlungen des Museo Nazionale zu Neapel (Berlin 1872).

9. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Plate 38/1: 1947.11.5 (ex-Hope collection; Tillyard, op. cit., no. 13). Dietrich von Bothmer and Marjorie J. Milne, ‘The Taleides Amphora’ in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, new series, 5 (May 1947), pp.221–228.

10. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Plate 16/3: 1917.62 (ex-Hope collection; Tillyard, op. cit., no. 137); 92/1: 539.

11. Musée du Louvre, Paris. Plates 2/1: n3157; 13: ll610 (ex-Joséphine de Beauharnais collection, Malmaison; Eye of Josephine: the antiquities collection of the empress in the Musée du Louvre, edited by Martine Denoyelle and Sophie Descamps-Lequime, Atlanta & Paris 2007, p.181 no. 86); 24/6: ed61; 29/1: f369; 40/2: k545; 52/1: g447; 61/1–4: e612; 77/8: f368; 77/9: f17; 87: ca4201; 88: g493; 91: k525. Cabinet des Medailles, Paris. Plate 12/1–2: 425.

12. University of Pennsylvania, Museum, Philadelphia. Plate 63: 30.44.4 (ex-Hope collection; Tillyard, op. cit., no. 87).

13. Rhode Island School of Design, Providence. Plate 23/1: 23.323 (ex-Hope collection; Tilllyard, op. cit., no. 88).

14. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Plates 5: 1113; 6/1: 683; 15/1: 731; 22/1: 1024; 33: 1011; 84/2: 688.

15. ‘M. Dubois, dessinateur, attaché au Musée royal [as a draughtsman in the department of Egyptian antiquities]. Nous devons à cet artiste distingué plusieurs beaux dessins de notre collection’ (p.46).

16. ‘Le choix des formes, le soin avec lequel on est entré dans le dessin de ces vases avec des anses vues de profil ou de face, celui que l’on a eu d’indiquer par des points la courbure des lèvres, les rebords des pieds, la structure intérieure enfin, sont dus à M. Brocchi conservateur du cabinet des modèles à l’Ecole royale Polytechnique, qui joint à un goût sûr une connoissance particulière et pratique de ces monuments’ (p.45). Brocchi had worked on important projects at the Louvre, among them the huge Lasimos crater; see Suzanne Favier, ‘A propos de deux vases italiotes du Musée du Louvre’ in La Revue du Louvre et des musées de France 22 (1972), pp.1–6.

17. ‘L’ouvrage sera du même format et prix que les Peintures des Vases [antiques, vulgairement appelés étrusques, by A.L. Millin and Dubois-Maisonneuve, Paris 1808–1810] imprimé au même nombre de trois cents exemplaires par M. Didot l’aîné, mais composé seulement de sept à huit livraisons de six planches chacune, accompagnées d’une explication sommaire, et qui paroîtront de mois en mois, à compter du ier juin 1817… Le prix de chaque livraison, grand in-fololio atlantique, papier vélin superfin, figures en noir, est de 18 fr. Celui des exemplaires, figures coloriées au pinceau et avec le plus grand soin, est de 45 fr’ (A.L. Millin, Annales Encyclopédiques, Tome vi, Paris 1817, p.343).

18. Bibliographie de la France, sixième année, no. 31 (2 August 1817), p.434 no. 2410.

19. Journal général de la littérature de France (septième cahier, 1834), p.119: ‘Cet ouvrage, interrompu pendant plusieurs années, est en fin terminé. Il se compose de 101 planches in-folio atlantique, dont plusieurs sur papier double, et du texte explicatif’.

20. Local opac: ‘48 S., 96 Taf. Taf. 34 fehlt’.

21. Local opac: ‘48 S., ci Taf.’.

22. The coloured copy in the British Library contains twelve folios of text (signed 1–6¹, explicating plates i–xviii,) and plates 1–76 only (with plates 27, 75 in that sequence also lacking).

23. The uncoloured copy in the National Art Library at the Victoria & Albert Museum contains twelve folios of text and 87 plates only.

24. Local opac: ‘[2] leaves, 48 p., [97], [91] leaves of plates’.

25. The Backmer copy, while complete, is uncoloured; Sotheby’s, ‘The library of Henry Myron Blackmer ii, sold by order of the executor’, London, 11–13 October 1989, lot 560 (sold £3000).

26. Two bindings by Philipp Selenka in the Fürstlich Waldecksche Hofbibliothek, Arolsen, are described by Rudolf-Alexander Schütte and Konrad Wiedemann, Einbandkunst vom frühmittelalter bis Jugendstil aus den Bibliotheken in Kassel und Arolsen, Universitätsbibliothek Kassel (Kassel 2002), p.54 no. 68 and Abb. 51 (on R.W. Plumer, Tremaine, or the man of refinement, London 1835) and no. 70 (Eduard und Kunigunde, Frankfurt am Main: Frebs, c. 1840). He was a specialist ‘Portefeuillearbeiter’; see Hektor Rössler, Ausführlicher Bericht über die von dem Gewerbverein für das Großherzogthum Hessen im Jahre 1842 veranstaltete Allgemeine deutsche Industrie-Ausstellung zu Mainz (Darmstadt 1843), p.240.

Top