Louis BINET (Paris 1744 - 1800) - Lot 60

Louis BINET (Paris 1744 - 1800) A collection of 51 illustrations for "Oribeau" by Restif de La Bretonne Pen, black ink, gray wash and white gouache highlights over black pencil lines. (Gouache partially oxidized on some drawings). 24 x 18 cm album dimensions 13 x 8.5 cm drawings (with margin 22.3 x 15.5 cm) All illustrations are successively annotated with the 26 letters of the alphabet (mainly top left, from A to Z, with W at the end, twice, however, the letter J from the first alphabet is missing). The first illustration is titled "Oribeau" (inscribed in reverse) and annotated at top right "A. Ch", (Ch. for chapter). According to a handwritten note, former collection of Baron Portalis (engraver). Louis Binet met Restif de la Bretonne in 1779 to illustrate La Malédiction paternelle. Restif de la Bretonne was both a writer and editor, collaborating with Binet on several works over many years. Our illustrations were executed for "Oribeau", written in 1789. Its original title is: Les Veillées du Marais, ou Histoire du grand prince Oribeau, roi de Mommonie, au pays d'Evinland, et de la vertueuse princesse Oribelle, de Lagenie, and is taken from the old Irish annals, translated into French by Nichols Donneraill, of Korke County, in 1785 (2 vol. in-12, 1,056 pages). Reprinted as L'Instituteur d'un prince royal (1791, 4 vols. in-12).