The Conquests or Battles of the Emperor of China,... Lot 67

[The Conquests or Battles of the Emperor of China, engraved under the direction of Charles-Nicolas Cochin]. 1769-1774 In-folio (668 x 488 mm), 16 plates on double page mounted on tabs (12 of them dated between 1769 and 1774). Dimensions of the compositions outside the margins : about 510 x 890 mm. Half red basane with corners from the 19th century, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets. (Binding slightly rubbed, corners dull.) Spectacular complete suite, in first edition, of the 16 prints ordered to France by the emperor of China to celebrate his military victories. Following his conquests in Upper Asia from 1755 to 1759, the Chinese emperor Qianlong wanted to immortalize his feats of arms by decorating the Zi Guang Ge palace in Beijing with 16 paintings illustrating his own poems recounting the campaign. He entrusted four missionaries established in Beijing, the Jesuits Giuseppe Castiglione, Ignatus Sichelbarth, Jean-Denis Attiret and Jean Damascene, with the preparatory sketches. For the imperial commission to result in a commitment from the French crown, it took an extraordinary combination of circumstances. When the drawings were completed, Qianlong, determined to have them engraved in Europe, instructed the viceroy of Canton to obtain information in this regard. The English were initially approached, but Father Le Febvre, superior of the French Jesuit mission in Canton, as well as the Compagnie des Indes, interceded in favor of France, which finally won the commission thanks to the intervention of Minister Bertin. Exceptional in the history of French art, the most exotic publishing adventure of the reign of Louis XV was executed under the direction of Charles-Nicolas Cochin, keeper of the drawings of the King's Cabinet, from the original drawings received from China. The 16 compositions were engraved with etching and burin between 1767 and 1774, by Saint-Aubin, Le Bas, Aliamet, Prévost, De Launay, Choffard, Née and Masquelier. Uniquely in the history of printmaking, four of the plates are marked "c. n. cochin direxit"! The emperor's order was for 100 copies, but to ensure that a sufficient number were received in China, 200 were printed. A few prints, printed in excess, remained in France. The delivery, chaotic, extended from 1772 to 1775, date at which the whole set of prints had reached China, with the original copperplates and two intaglio presses intended to spread the technique of copperplate engraving there. The series of Battles, drawn in Peking, engraved in Paris, printed in France and then in China, reveals an unprecedented aspect of the cultural and technological exchanges between East and West. Rare copy of this monument of engraving. REFERENCES Henri Cordier, " Les conquêtes de l'empereur de la Chine ", Mémoires concernant l'Asie orientale, Paris, tome I, 1913, pp. 1-18 ; Paul Pelliot, " Les Conquêtes de l'empereur de la Chine ", T'oung Pao, archives concernant les langues... de l'Asie orientale, XX, August 1920-1921; Pascal Torres, Les Batailles de l'empereur de Chine: gloire de Qianlong célébrée par Louis XV, une commande royale d'estampes, catalog of the exhibition at the Louvre Museum, 2009; François Courbouin and Marcel Roux, Bibliographie de la gravure française, I, p. 47, 51, 52, 252; II, p. 123-124