27 Mar 2007
10:30 BST
London, New Bond Street
The Library of the late Paul Betts, and other properties including Manuscripts and Photography
Back to auction 15230
The Library of the late Paul Betts, and other properties including Manuscripts and Photography
Back to auction 15230
DESGODETZ (ANTOINE)
Les edifices antiques de Rome dessinés et mesurés tres exactement, first edition, engraved title within decorative border, and 127 plates (22 double-page), 2 engraved head-pieces and historiated initials, some light browning, mostly in margins, one or two plates stained, OWNERSHIP SIGNATURES OF JAMES THORNHILL AND ROBERT WILLIAMSON ON TITLE-PAGE, AND OF MATTHEW BANCKES on front free endpaper, contemporary mottled calf, red morocco spine label, rebacked and repaired [Berlin Cat. 1863; Fowler 102], folio (427 x 280mm.), Paris, J.B. Colgnard, 1682
Sold for
£3,360
inc. premium
Footnotes
- A fine association copy of the first edition of the earliest accurately measured drawings of the ruins of ancient Rome, a work which corrected many of the errors of Palladio, Serlio and others, and which remained the standard work until the mid-nineteenth century.
In addition to the signature on the title-page of the painter James Thornhill, a pencil note in a contemporary hand reads: "Mr Thornhill next door to/ the Golden ball in the/ Great Piazza/ Covent Garden". Thornhill lived in the last house in the north range of the Great Piazza, where he hosted the annual dinner of the Virtuosi of St. Luke, from at least 1716 until his death in 1734: "It is only in recent years that Thornhill's importance in... areas such as architecture, collecting, connoisseurship, and the formulation of art theory, has been and continues to be explored" (Tubittea Barber, ODNB). Robert Williamson, whose signature is present below Thornhill's, has not been traced.
Matthew Banckes was Master Carpenter in the Office of Works from 1683 as well as Master of the Carpenter's Company of London, and his many projects inlcuded six of Wren's city churches, surveys and architectural designs for improvements to Eton College, and the construction of the floor of the Library at Trinity College, Cambridge.
Category: Books / Books, Maps and Manuscripts
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