Lot 431C email save

[Lefebure-Durufle.Excursion...Normandie

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first edition, large paper copy, 40 exquisite hand-coloured aquatint plates on india paper, occasional light foxing, plates for the most part clean and protected by tissue guards, contemporary aubergine half roan, spine gilt, leather a little rubbed, some wear to lower edge of boards, uncut, [Abbey, Travel 92], folio, Paris, chez J.F.Ostervald, Imprimerie de Jules Didot l'Ainé, [1823-25].

***Excellent copy (large paper, coloured and on india paper) of this rare work. It was originally published in parts (and according to Barbier and Brunet, with the first 3 parts under the title Voyage Pittoresque dans les Ports et sur les Cotes de France).The Abbey copy included an extra plate (probably "a discarded design"), but 40 plates corresponds to the number called for in the Table. Our copy measures over 23 x 16 inches, considerably larger than the Abbey copy and clearly one on large paper and entirely uncut. The exceptional plates include 7 after Bonington and 2 after Copley Fielding. Twenty two of the plates are engraved by the other Fielding brothers, Thales and Theodore, although precise attribution of four of them (which are simply signed Th. Fielding) is not possible. Prideaux states on page 276 that this book is Theodore Fielding's "most important book", but Abbey calls this statement "somewhat misleading" owing to the doubt over the exact number Theodore actually executed. In any case the book is a truly magnificent work in which the quality of the colouring and engraving is exceptionally high. .

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