1751 Pair of Large Folio Diderot Encyclopédie Hand-Colored Engravings: Lutherie

Description: 1751 Set of Rare, Large Folio Hand-Colored Copper-Plate Engravingsby Bonaventure Louis Prévost & Robert Bénard, from: ENCYCLOPÉDIEOUDICTIONNAIRE RAISONNÉDES SCIENCESDES ARTS ET DES MÉTIERS Pl. XIX & XXI Lutherie, Harpe Organisée(Luthier, Harp, making of the Harp) This stunning pair of hand-colored Folio engravings originates from the famous Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, published in France between 1751 and 1772. Appears to be printed on the original, chain-lined laid verge cotton fiber paper. This is a very scarce set of prints from the sought-after section on musical instruments, & two of the very best, most beautiful of them all. The Harp & its components are rendered & composed with exceptional bold balance & intricate grace, complete with detailed decorative Baroque scroll-work carvings as was the style of the era. The craftsmanship in the copperplate engraving is stunning, with hatch-work & shading so tight & perfect like the grooves of a record. It's especially rare to find these hand-colored & in such clean shape. The hand water-coloring looks to me to be as beautiful & crisp as the day it was painted. These are beautiful renderings of the making of, & inner-workings of the Harp. I imagine these would be an amazing addition to the decor of a musician or music-appreciator, or a museum or display of antique stringed instruments. Certainly anyone who loves the Harp would love these historic & beautiful prints. The Volumes:Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers (French for 'Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts and Crafts'), better known as Encyclopédie. It was a general encyclopedia published in France between 1751 and 1772, with later supplements, revised editions, and translations. It had many writers, known as the Encyclopédistes. It was edited by Denis Diderot and, until 1759, co-edited by Jean le Rond d'Alembert. It was about the most influential & revolutionary early encyclopedias, a founding document of the Age of Reason & the Enlightenment.These 3 engravings originate from the plate volume titled: ‘Receuil de Planches sur les sciences, les arts libereaux, et les arts mechaniques avec leur explication. Troisieme Livraison', published 1765.’ The Encyclopédie is most famous for representing the thought of the Enlightenment. According to Denis Diderot in the article "Encyclopédie", the Encyclopédie's aim was "to change the way people think" and for people to be able to inform themselves and to know things. He and the other contributors advocated for the secularization of learning away from the Jesuits. Diderot wanted to incorporate all of the world's knowledge into the Encyclopédie and hoped that the text could disseminate all this information to the public and future generations, an early & epic example of democratization of knowledge. The work consisted of 28 volumes, with 71,818 articles and 3,129 illustrations. The first seventeen volumes were published between 1751 and 1765; eleven volumes of plates were finished by 1772. Engraver Robert Bénard provided at least 1,800 plates for the work. The Artists:This one is signed by Bonaventure Louis Prévost (1733 – 1816). A student of Jean Ouvrier, Prévost was a skilled craftsman, much more so than his master. He engraved more than sixty of Charles Nicolas Cochin's drawings with great fidelity and precision. The most well-known of his works is the 1765 frontispiece of the Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers (the present work), edited by Denis Diderot and Jean Le Rond d'Alembert, depicting "la Raison et la Philosophie arrachant son voile à la Vérité rayonnante de lumière" ("Reason and Philosophy catching the [sun]beams of Truth"), engraved from Cochin's drawing of 1764. Robert Bénard (1734 in Paris – 1794), a French engraver. He is mainly famous for having supplied a significant amount of plates (at least 1,800) to the Encyclopédie by Diderot & d'Alembert from 1751. Later, publisher Charles-Joseph Panckoucke reused many of his productions to illustrate the works of this present expanded version based on the original Diderot Encyclopedia. The Authors:The Physique volumes which I believed contained the Astronomie section, was authored by Gaspard Monge, Jean-Dominique Cassini, Pierre Bertholon de Saint-Lazare, &c. The Publisher & Printer:Charles-Joseph Panckoucke (1736 – 1798) was a French writer and publisher. He was responsible for numerous influential publications of the era, including the literary journal Mercure de France and the Encyclopédie Méthodique, a successor to the Encyclopédie by Denis Diderot (the present work) The Prints & Technique:Line-engraving or Copperplate engraving is a highly exacting & labor-intensive process for intaglio printmaking. The original drawing is cut into the surface of a copper plate, with shading created by many fine cut lines, or hatching. Before printing takes place, the plate is heated, covered with ink. The warm ink seeps into the finest of depressions and fills the lines and textures of the drawing. The rest of the plate is cleaned off. The copper plate is now pressed with a printing press on to moistened paper which soaks up the ink from the depressions in the plate. The copperplate-engraving technique is very exacting, time-consuming and exhausting for the engraver, who needs a lot of strength for it. Condition:Appears to be in Excellent condition for a 235-year-old engraving. The hand-coloring appears to remain as beautiful as the day it was printed. Very little if any age-toning for an antique print. Appears to be on the original laid, chain-lined handmade cotton fiber paper. These prints are very old & may have imperfections expected with age, such as age-toning of the paper, oxidation of the old original watercolors, spots, text-offsetting, artifacts from having been bound into a book, etc. Please examine the photos & details carefully.Text Page(s): This one comes without the original text page. I've included a scan of the title page of one of the volumes for reference, it's not part of the listing. About this Gorgeous Engraving & The Objects it Illustrates:An armillary sphere (variations are known as spherical astrolabe, armilla, or armil) is a model of objects in the sky (on the celestial sphere), consisting of a spherical framework of rings, centered on Earth or the Sun, that represent lines of celestial longitude and latitude and other astronomically important features, such as the ecliptic.As such, it differs from a celestial globe, which is a smooth sphere whose principal purpose is to map the constellations. It was invented separately, in ancient China possibly as early as the 4th century BC and ancient Greece during the 3rd century BC, with later uses in the Islamic world and Medieval Europe. With the Earth as center, an armillary sphere is known as Ptolemaic. With the Sun as center, it is known as Copernican. The Armillary Sphere drawn here looks to be an incredibly fine instrument, especially considering every part of this metal assemblage would have been made by hand with 18th Century skills & tools. Size: 11-3/4 x 9-1/2 inches approximately. Combined Shipping:Multiple prints combine into one USPS Flat-Rate envelope, or these can be combined with larger prints. Ebay should auto-combine multiple prints if you put them in your shopping cart & check out all at once. Or if you purchase individually, & eBay assesses multiple shipping charges for one combined package, I will endeavor to refund the shipping overage asap. Thanks for Visiting!

Price: 249 USD

Location: Great Barrington, Massachusetts

End Time: 2024-11-26T02:41:39.000Z

Shipping Cost: 15 USD