Les émaux de Petitot au Musée Impérial du Louvre

First edition, illustrated with 50 magnificent portraits engraved with burin by Ceroni in medallions. Each portrait is accompanied by a biographical notice of approximately 12 pages, written by different authors. Deluxe publication.
Full red morocco bindings of the period signed Amand. Raised bands spine finely and richly decorated with roses and interlacing. Gilt titles and volume labels. Boards decorated in the Du Seuil style with central frame and triple gilt fillet border, corner ornaments in the corners. Wide interior frieze. Gilt edges. Light rubbing on some bands, at headcaps. Upper joint of volume I cracked at head and tail. Some traces of rubbing on the upper board of volume II. Very fresh copy, with some occasional worming and leaves slightly more yellowed.
Splendid binding perfectly executed in morocco.
He who was nicknamed "the Raphael of painting on enamel" created in the 17th century a series of portraits of great figures of the time of Louis XIV (Richelieu, Mme de Montbazon, Turenne, La Rochefoucauld, Ninon de l'Enclos, Colbert, Mme de Sevigne, M le Comte de Grignan, Mme Scarron, la Duchesse de Portsmouth), with incomparable perfection. These portraits were exhibited at the Imperial Museum of the Louvre and gave birth to this work.
19th-century armorial bookplate of Bordes de Fortage