Descrizione

D’HANCARVILLE, Pierre François Hughes – Antiquités étrusques, grecques et romaines, ou les beaux Vases Etrusques, Grecs et Romains, et les peintures rendues avec les couleurs qui leur sont propres, gravées par F.A. David, avec leurs explications, par d’Hancarville. Tome premier [-cinquième]. A Paris, chez l’auteur, F.A. David rue Pierre-Sarrazin n. 13, 1785-1787.

4to (278×205 mm.), 5 volumes in contemporary vellum binding, spine with raised bands with titles on double labels, a wide copy, with deckle edges, impressed on very light blue paper (light occasional foxing or browning in places). Vol. I: pp. [4], 107, [1 blank] (engr. front. and 73 engr. illust. on 72 plates); vol. II: [4], 134, 2 bb. (engr. front. and 72 engr. plates); vol. III: [4], 143, [1] (engr. front. and 72 engr. plates); vol. IV: [4], 186, (engr. front. and 72 engr. plates); vol. V: [4], 112 (engr. front. and 72 engr. plates). Almost all the 361 plates are watercolored (like the five engraved frontispieces).

Second edition, the first in 4to, a beautiful large paper copy of this work documenting the collection of vases of Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803), printed for the first time in 4 folio volumes in Naples between 1766 and 1767 (with bilingual English-French text), which gained a great editorial success and influenced the neoclassical revival that swept through Europe between the 18th and 19th centuries. Cohen-De Ricci, 474. Vinet, 1528; Blackmer 847; Brunet II 536; Cicognara 2490.