Charles EISEN

Edition published one year after the original, illustrated with four fine copper-engraved plates by Charles Eisen depicting Nordic types (Icelandic women, a bear hunt, Samoyeds, a Laplander in a sleigh) engraved by Le Mire, one folding map by Bellin, thirteen maps, plans, or views (eight of them folding) engraved by Croissey, as well as a charming engraved title vignette and a headpiece by Le Gouaz.

See Sabin, 37616; Chadenat, 1633; Boucher de la Richarderie, I, 380.

Full mottled calf binding, smooth spine richly gilt in compartments decorated with gilt fleurons and geometric motifs, sometimes slightly rubbed, red morocco label, restorations to spine and joints, gilt roll...

First edition, first issue, exhibiting all the bibliographical points recorded by Cohen-de Ricci (nos. 769–772): an engraved frontispiece, three dedication plates, four title ornaments, thirty vignettes and a final tailpiece, together with one hundred and forty full-page illustrations, including the frontispiece, numbered 2 to 140 and distributed 48, 33, 37 and 22 across the four volumes. The illustrations are after designs by Boucher, Eisen, Gravelot, Le Prince, Monnet and Moreau, and engraved by, among others, Baquoy, Basan, Binet, Duclos and de Ghendt. The frontispiece, three of the four title ornaments and the majority of the vignettes are the work of...

First edition illustrated with 38 hors-texte engravings (10 in color) after Fragonard, Eisen, Boucher, Moreau le jeune, Huet, Schall, one of 275 numbered copies on Holland paper, the only issue after 25 Japan.
Full midnight blue morocco binding, spine with five raised bands set with gilt dots decorated with double gilt compartments enhanced with gilt typographic motifs enriched with red, place, and blue mosaic morocco pieces, publisher and date gilt at foot, gilt roulettes on headcaps, three small nicks on joints and bands, triple gilt fillet frame on boards, marbled paper endpapers and pastedowns, gilt dentelle frame on pastedowns, covers and spine preserved, top edge gilt...

Edition regarded as the masterpiece of the painter and engraver Charles Eisen, and a counterfeit of the famed Fermiers généraux edition.

This edition is illustrated with 2 engraved frontispieces by Vidal, 2 title vignettes, 1 portrait after Hyacinthe Rigaud, along with 80 plates and 43 tailpieces. One engraving is unfortunately missing from our copy, which contains 79 engravings instead of 80.

A few minor spots, not affecting the text.

Bound in contemporary full green morocco, flat spines slightly sunned, decorated with double gilt fillets and gilt floral and typographic motifs, red morocco lettering-pieces and volume labels, gilt roll tooling at head and tail...

The so-called Fermiers Généraux edition, using the editions of 1685 and 1696 for the text and adding tales by d’Autreau and de Vergier, present in the 1718 edition.

From an edition of 2,000 copies on vergé de Hollande, the present copy is one of the rare first issue copies in contemporary morocco with uncensored engravings and a fleuron error on p. 240 of vol. 1, later corrected.