[Revolution] BONNEVILLE (François) and QUÉNARD... - Lot 264 - Richard Maison de ventes

Lot 264
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[Revolution] BONNEVILLE (François) and QUÉNARD... - Lot 264 - Richard Maison de ventes
[Revolution] BONNEVILLE (François) and QUÉNARD (Philippe): Portraits of the famous characters of the Revolution, with historical table and notices, by P. Quenard, one of the representatives of the Commune of Paris, in 1789 and 1790. Paris, Imprimerie du Cercle Social, 1796 [for the second volume]. Two volumes. 19,5 by 26 cm. 1 frontispiece-(2)-72 pp.-50 ff. of text recto-verso accompanying 50 portraits in medallions h.t.-(4) pp. and 1 frontispiece-(6)-8 pp.-45 ff. of text recto-verso accompanying 45 portraits in medallions h.t.-5 ff. of text accompanying 5 portraits in medallions h.t.-(2)-(4)-(6)-98-(3) pp. Full contemporary basane, spines smoothly decorated. Binding worn, spines cracked (fragile binding). Without the title page of vol. 1, title page of vol. 2 restored on the back with contemporary paper. Light marginal staining on about fifteen portraits, and some scattered foxing. This copy has some flaws, but is the copy of the author, Philippe QUENARD, and includes numerous autograph notes signed by him. Important autograph note from Quénard, signed and dated November 28, 1801: it specifies that if he did publish these two volumes, the 3rd one is not his. He adds moreover that this 3rd volume "is not written in the same sense as the first 2 either." The author then explains that "prudence forced him to make omissions" in the writing of the notices, and this, so that the work could appear, and concludes "it was thus necessary to leave to guess something to the reader, and to let pass some scoundrels under the mantle of patriotism." An autograph and signed note on the portrait of Montesquiou Fezensac specifies that the ecclesiastical habit of the character was converted by the editor into a general's habit and that this infidelity was discovered only after the publication of the work. An autograph and signed note on the portrait of Barbaroux, again, expresses the author's regret about the lack of fidelity of the portrait. An autograph and signed note on the portrait of David specifies: "This portrait is an obvious infidelity of the engraver Bonneville, who not having the portrait of David, used an engraved plate representing the author of the 3rd volume." First edition and first printing of the first two volumes, the only ones published by Quénard who disowned the other two. The work comes from the press of the Cercle Social, which was directed after Thermidor by Bonneville. These portraits form the most complete collection of the characters of the Revolution and have the reputation to preserve a certain realism. The frontispieces and portraits are "engraved in oval, with etching and stippling [...]. Bonneville assures that the portraits of Fouquier-Tinville and Carrier were drawn by him at the revolutionary court as well as that of Charlotte Corday and many others." The plates of costumes of the constituted authorities (members of the Directory, the Ancients, the Five Hundred) are engraved by Duplessis Bertaux. Well complete with his engravings. For collectors
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