BRETEZ (Louis) TURGOT (Michel Etienne). PLAN... - Lot 45 - De Baecque et Associés

Lot 45
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Estimation :
12000 - 15000 EUR
BRETEZ (Louis) TURGOT (Michel Etienne). PLAN... - Lot 45 - De Baecque et Associés
BRETEZ (Louis) TURGOT (Michel Etienne). PLAN DE PARIS commencé l'année 1734, dressé et gravé sous les ordres de Messire Michel-Etienne Turgot. Surveyed and drawn by Louis Bretez, engraved by Claude Lucas. (Paris), 1734-1739. Large folio containing a folded assembly plan and 20 double-page engraved plates mounted on tabs. Plates 18 and 19 with the cartouche are united. Red morocco, large floral frame with large fleur-de-lys in the corners, coat of arms in the centre of the boards, spine with nine raised bands decorated with gilt fleur-de-lys, large inner border, lining and endpapers of light blue tabis, gilt edges (period binding). ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL REPRESENTATIONS OF PARIS IN THE XVIIIth CENTURY. In 1734, Michel Etienne Turgot, then provost of the merchants of the Parisian municipality, decided to promote the magnificence of Paris by making a new plan of the city and its suburbs. Louis Bretez was put in charge of its realization and made extremely detailed surveys of "all the churches, buildings, squares, fountains and other public monuments, all the palaces, hotels and private houses, well and duly distinguished". One can even make out the fishermen working in their boats on the Seine. The result was a masterpiece of accuracy and only 2500 copies were printed. A choice copy well preserved in the official royal binding from the workshops of the Imprimerie Royale decorated with the "Louvre border" which combines several irons from the workshop of the gilder Luc-Antoine Boyet (bookbinder to the king from 1698 to 1733). It was featured in the Damascene-Morgand bulletin (Bulletin of 1901, n°41682). SUPERB BINDING WITH LARGE LACE, WITH THE ARMS OF QUEEN MARIE-LECZINSKA, wife of Louis XV.
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