Dictionnaire des arts et métiers

First edition.
Full mottled brown calf bindings. Spines with raised bands, gilt-tooled. Title and volume labels in Havana morocco. Losses at the head of volume I. Upper border of volume I partly trimmed. Abrasions to the boards with a loss on the lower board of volume I. Overall, a good copy.

In the preface, the author pays tribute to the undertaking of Diderot and D'Alembert; the Encyclopédie des arts et métiers began in 1751 but only two volumes had appeared. Several contributors took part in writing the entries, including Baumé and Rigaud. Many articles are noteworthy, in particular those on bookbinding and numerous forgotten trades: ceinturier (belt maker), coffretier-malletier (coffer- and trunk-maker). Certain remarks refer to the dictionary of chemistry by the author’s brother, Pierre-Joseph Macquer, as well as to the dictionary of natural history.