CROZAT (Pierre). Lot n° 71

Recueil d'estampes d'après les plus beaux tableaux et d'après les plus beaux desseins qui sont en France dans le Cabinet du Roy, dans celui de Monseigneur le Duc d'Orléans, et dans d'autres cabinets. Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1729-1742. 2 volumes, large folio, marbled calf, spine decorated, red edges (period binding). First edition of this magnificent collection of prints known as "Crozat's cabinet", because he was its sponsor. A second edition, less sought after, appeared in 1763. The work contains 182 plates, 20 of which are double-page, interpreted on copperplate after the masters of the Roman and Venetian schools, such as Raphael, Giorgione, Carracci, the Dominiquin, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Pinturicchio, Caravaggio... Some of them are printed in bistre, sepia, blue, in several shades, etc. The explanatory text is adorned with a header by Van Loo engraved by Horthemels, a title vignette and an initials, all three repeated in the second volume. From the library of Charles-Richard Tronchin (1763-1835), co-founder of the Caisse d'épargne du canton de Genève in 1816, with handwritten bookplate. The copy is listed in the catalogue of the Tronchin library (1987, n°175). A second proof of plates 56/57, 82, 84, 86, 95 and 127 is attached, loose and generally faded. Corners and headpieces are missing, spotting, one jaw cracked, tear without missing on plate 88, small angular wetness on some plates. Brunet, IV, 1157 (182 plates) - Cohen, 267 (178 plates).