1786 ❧ Beautiful color printing. SERGENT-MARCEAU, Antoine-Louis-François (1751-1847), with Jean-Baptiste Moret, Barthélemy Roger, Louis-Charles Ruotte, Madame de Cernel, and others. Portraits des grands hommes, femmes illustres, et sujets mémorables de France, gravés et imprimés en couleurs, dédiés au Roi. Paris: Chez Blin, Imprimeur en taille-douce, [1786-1792]. Large 4to (340 x 248 mm). Engraved title page, engraved dedication leaf, and 192 spectacular color plates printed in color (aquatints and stipple engravings printed using the specialized color-ink method, finished by hand). Comprising 96 portrait plates of celebrated French historical figures (such as Joan of Arc, Descartes, Richelieu, Colbert) followed sequentially by 96 vivid plates depicting corresponding historical scenes, allegories, or military victories. Marginal toning and spotting. French green morocco by Theodor Mümmler of Vienna with his gilt stamps on inner dentelle; covers and spine elaborately gilt, watered silk endleaves and doublures abbutted by marbled endpapers. Perhaps the finest, most technically advanced monument of color printing produced at the zenith of 18th-century French printmaking. Conceived on the eve of the French Revolution and dedicated to King Louis XVI, this monumental graphic undertaking by the artist and revolutionary politician Sergent-Marceau represents the apex of the multi-plate color aquatint and stipple technique. Rather than printing in monochrome and applying watercolors later by hand, Sergent and his studio applied various colored inks directly to a series of distinct copper plates for each illustration-a highly complex process that perfectly replicated the soft, ethereal textures of pastel drawings and fine gouache miniatures. The historical layout of the text is brilliantly systematic: each biographical portrait of an illustrious French figure is immediately followed by a richly complex scene illustrating their greatest contribution to science, statecraft, philosophy, or war. For American collectors, the volume holds distinct transatlantic significance due to its legendary Plate 2, a celebrated, cross-cultural allegory honoring the American Revolutionary War and the Declaration of Independence, complete with early French engraving portraits of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. This specific copy is a bibliographic marvel of the highest order. Because these massive color plates were intensely coveted for individual framing, the vast majority of surviving copies have been broken up, heavily trimmed, or disfigured over the past two centuries. To find a copy where the plates remain entirely uncut and untrimmed is a rare anomaly, as almost all copies have gilt or marbled edges that indicate substantial paper trimming. Cohen-de Ricci 951; Catalogue de la Bibliothèque Nationale. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing