Nouveau Livre De Serrurerie.
Paris, Louis Fordrin [1723].
Large folio (456 x 322 mm.). ETCHED AND ENGRAVED TITLE, ETCHED AND ENGRAVED DEDICATION, TWENTY-EIGHT ETCHED AND ENGRAVED LEAVES — fifteen full-sheet cuts, one double-page cut and three plates each of four sheets; letterpress privilege leaf, complete.
Contemporary mottled calf (worn, a few neat repairs), spine and red morocco label gilt.
First Edition of this ironwork pattern book presenting chandeliers, grilles, railings, lattice gates, balconies, garden ornament, staircases, signs, lamps and A SPECTACULAR TWELVE-SHEET CHOIR-SCREEN (850 x 1008 mm.), inspired by Fordrin’s work at Notre Dame. This copy is an early issue with all but five plates before numbers; in the ?19th century, three small related cuts (c. 165 x 175 mm.; one signed Babin) were tipped in on stubs. In good condition, label of pn on the front pastedown.
¶Guilmard, Les Maîtres ornemanistes 123-4,96 “Very fine examples” (tr.); Cohen-de Ricci, Guide de l’amateur de livres à gravures 408 “rare”; Jervis, The Penguin Dictionary of Design 186-7; Destailleur, Catalogue (1895) 458 (plates numbered).
Price: $6,500.00