FERRIOL (Charles) - LE HAY (Jacques). - Lot 19

FERRIOL (Charles) - LE HAY (Jacques). Recueil de cent estampes représentant différentes Nations du Levant tirées sur les Tableaux peints d'après Nature en 1707 et 1708. Paris : Le Hay, Ducange, 1714. [Followed by]: Explication des cent estampes qui représentent différentes nations du Levant. Avec de nouvelles estampes de cérémonies turques qui ont aussi leurs explications. Paris : Jacques Collombat, 1715. - 2 parts in one folio volume, 493 x 328: title, (2 ff.), 102 plates, 1 engraved music plate: (1 f.), 26 pp. Marbled calf, ornate spine, red edges (period binding). Blackmer, n°591 - Brunet, III, 947-948 - Chahine, n°2737 - Cohen, 619 - Colas, 1819-1820. A complete first edition of this famous and superb work, which was for a long time the main source on Ottoman costumes. It was published at the request of ambassador Charles de Ferriol by painter and engraver Jacques Le Hay (1645?-1721?). It comprises an engraved title, a preface, 102 copper-engraved plates, including 3 on double-page, a music plate and 26 pages of explanations of the prints. The engravings depict court and class costumes from countries such as Turkey, Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Greece, Persia, Arabia... They were engraved under Le Hay's direction by Baron, Cochin, Du Bosc, de Franssières, Haussard, Rochefort, Gérard and Jean-Baptiste Scotin, and Simonneau fils, from drawings by Élisabeth-Sophie Chéron (1648-1711), wife of Jacques Le Hay, based on paintings by Jean-Baptiste van Mour (1671-1737). An invaluable record of public and private life in early 18th-century Turkey. French ambassador to Constantinople between 1699 and 1711, Charles de Ferriol (1652-1722), who had noticed the work of artist Jean-Baptiste van Mour (1671-1737), commissioned him to paint portraits of the local population. When de Ferriol returned to France, he had the paintings engraved and published this collection, which appeared in 1714, comprising one hundred plates. The following year, it was supplemented by an explanatory text, two additional double-page plates (Enterrement turc and Les Derviches dans leur temple de Pera, achevant de tourner) and a music plate of a tune to which the dervishes of Pera turn. "These last three plates are often missing" (Brunet). In 1725, in recognition of his talent, van Mour was appointed "Peintre ordinaire du roy en levant". A fine copy in contemporary binding, from the library of Michel Joseph Hyacinthe Lallemant de Betz (1693-1773), fermier général and collector, whose collection of prints was added to the Cabinet des estampes de la Bibliothèque royale in 1753. Fine restoration to headpieces and corners. Restoration to edge of plate 99. Provenance : Michel Joseph Hyacinthe Lallemant de Betz, with his bookplate.