MOREAU (Jean-Michel). - RÉTIF DE LA BRETONNE (Nicolas Edme). - Lot 22

MOREAU (Jean-Michel). - RÉTIF DE LA BRETONNE (Nicolas Edme). Monument de costume physique et moral de la fin du dix-huitième siècle, ou tableau de la vie. Nauwied sur le Rhin: chez la Société typographique, 1789. - Broadside, brown half-basin, smooth spine decorated (period binding). This famous collection is a true visual and literary testimony to French society on the eve of the Revolution, and includes the first edition of Nicolas Edme Rétif de La Bretonne's text. At the end of the 1780s, art lover and publisher Jean-Henri Eberts found himself with a set of engraved copperplates, mainly from suites produced by Jean-Michel Moreau (1741-1814) in the 1770s and 1780s. These prints, though outdated for the fashion of the time, are of remarkable artistic quality. Eberts then decided to bring them together in a single work, no longer as a simple fashion catalog, but as a monument - in the sense of homage and memory - to the life and mores of the late 18th century. To give new life to these images, he called on Rétif de la Bretonne, a prolific writer and keen observer of the foibles of his time. The collection thus combines a variety of scenes: the maternity of Céphise, the leisure activities of a young aristocrat, moments of daily life, portraits of idealized peasants, and so on. The highly accurate engravings capture the details of costumes, accessories and attitudes, while Rétif de la Bretonne's texts add reflections on morality, family and society. The collection includes a total of 26 large plates, 24 engraved after Moreau le jeune and 2 ("La Matinée" and "La Surprise") after Freudenberg. They were executed by the finest engravers of the day, including Philippe Trière, Jean-Henri Eberts Helman, Charles Baquoy, Charles Emmanuel Patas, Carl and Heinrich Guttenberg, Robert de Launay, Louis Michel Halbou, Antoine Louis Romanet and others. Binding badly damaged, spine badly worn, corners dulled. Scattered foxing. Large light-brown trace on the plate "La Partie de Wich" (opposite page 28). Provenance: Edward Lee Childe, with his bookplate.