Salomon Gessner | Oeuvres. Paris, 1786-1793, finely bound by Bozerian. - photo 1
Salomon Gessner | Oeuvres. Paris, 1786-1793, finely bound by Bozerian. - photo 2

Salomon Gessner | Oeuvres. Paris, 1786-1793, finely bound by Bozerian.

Lot 37
28.11.2023 14:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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£ 2 286
AuctioneerSotheby´s
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1076560
Lot 37 | Salomon Gessner | Oeuvres. Paris, 1786-1793, finely bound by Bozerian.
Estimate value
£ 3 000 – 5 000
Salomon Gessner

Oeuvres. Paris: Chez l’Auteur, Veuve Hérissant et Barrois, l’aîne, [1786-1793])

FIRST EDITION with these illustrations, LARGE PAPER, 3 volumes, folio (485 x 340mm.),

147 ILLUSTRATIONS AFTER DESIGNS BY JEAN-JACQUES FRANÇOIS LE BARBIER, comprising 3 engraved title pages, 4 vignettes, 66 tailpieces, and 74 leaves of plates (including frontispiece portrait of Gessner) engraved by Alix, Baquoy, Dambrun, de Longueil, and others, ALL IN FIRST STATE, RED STRAIGHT-GRAINED MOROCCO GILT BY BOZERIAN, covers framed by gilt fillets, spine gilt in compartments with a rose or a musical instrument at center, turn-ins with gilt arches roll (Culot 18), green endpapers, gilt edges, binding slightly rubbed

REFERENCES: Cohen-de Ricci 433; Ray 39; for the binding: Culot, “Jean Claude Bozerian,” roulette #18

A SUMPTUOUS SET EPITOMISING THE BEST IN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY FRENCH BOOK ARTS: a large paper copy of a book that, in Ray’s opinion, “represents one of the happiest of all collaborations between artist and writer”, all of this in a graceful binding by the preeminent Paris atelier of the day.

Gessner (1730-1788) was a painter and poet from Zurich, who hoped to renew the ancient genre of the eclogue. In his imagined neoclassical world, all the shepherdesses are beautiful, virtuous, and sensitive, and the shepherds are always honest and respectful. This struck a chord with illustrator Jean-Jacques-François Le Barbier (1738-1826), who wrote in the dedication, “the charm of Gessner’s poems filled my imagination, and transported it to the happy centuries of the world’s innocence”. It also inspired him to collaborate with Gessner on this present work, providing, in Ray’s words, the “most sustained and accomplished series of illustrations” by the artist.

The elegant binding by Bozerian is notable for its refinement, and it continues the motif of noble simplicity set by author and illustrator. Jean-Claude Bozerian (1762-1840) was the elder of the Bozerian brothers (François is referred to as “le jeune”) and was active in Paris from 1795 to about 1810. He began his career in Lyon as an apprentice bookseller, printer, and bookbinder, eventually deciding to focus on the latter craft. Marriage to the widow of binder Pierre Boulier allowed him to establish a binding workshop in Paris, where he was joined by his brother. His bindings were soon much in demand by French bibliophiles, who appreciated their superior materials, tasteful design, and flawless execution.

Gessner’s “Oeuvres” typically appears in quarto; Large Paper Copies like this one are very rare, especially with all of the plates in first state (which according to Cohen-de-Ricci is recognisable by the lack of numbering to the plates and their appearance on bluish paper).
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28.11.2023
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