PAULET (Jean). - Lot 34

PAULET (Jean). L'Art du fabriquant d'étoffes de soie. [Paris], 1773-1776. - 3 folio volumes, 462 x 301. Half red calf, cold-rolled, ribbed spine, untrimmed, cardboard slipcase (modern binding). First edition of this important work on the craft of silk fabric manufacture, part of the in-folio edition of the Description des arts et métiers, faite ou approuvée par messieurs de l'Académie royale des sciences, published from 1761 to 1789. These 3 volumes contain the first six sections of the work, out of seven, and the beginning of the seventh, which is in two parts. They include: Reeling of dyed silks; Warping of warps; Art of the warp and pile folder; Art of canmaking; Art of the rewinder; Art of combing; Art of the silk fabric maker, first part containing the manufacture of taffetas, serges and plain satins... second part containing a general description of all utensils... These first six sections are illustrated with 100 engraved plates, some folding, by Benard, after himself, Goussier or the author. "Each of these first six sections used to be sold separately, although the pagination followed in all volumes" (Quérard). The author, Jean Paulet, a designer and manufacturer of silk fabrics in Nîmes, dedicated this work to the municipal administration of his native Nîmes. Marginal angular staining to the last plate of the first volume, small worm gallery in the margin of 8 plates and small marginal stain to two leaves of the third volume.