Oudry, Jean-Baptiste.

Rebvs Ov Logogrifhe Dédiées À Son Altesse Royal[e] Madame La Dvchesse De Bery.

Paris, J.B. Oudry [1716].

Oblong 8vo (148 x 198 mm.). Etched title-page with Pierrot and Harlequin gesturing to drapery with the title and FORTY ETCHED REBUS PLATES — THE WHOLE IN CONTEMPORARY HAND COLOR; without the intaglio dedication and four solution leaves.

CONTEMPORARY GILT BROWN MOROCCO, wide frame of partly pointillé drawer handles and foliage, CENTRAL ARMS OF THE DEDICATEE, THE DUCHESSE DE BERRY, joined with those of her late husband, spine richly gilt and gilt-lettered, all edges gilt.

            In January 1716, while in seclusion for the birth — then tragic death — of her second natural child, the very rich twenty-year-old widow, Marie-Louise-Élisabeth d’Orléans, Duchess of Berry (1696-1719), received from the talented and fashionable painter J.-B. Oudry this ingenious suite of picture riddles on love, seduction and morality. He created, designed and cut the forty playful prints based on prose and verse solutions of his own invention to amuse and distract the young duchess and her friends at so difficult a time.
            Then much in vogue at the French court, rebuses combine elements of emblems, heraldry, cryptography and mnemonics. The present set incorporates individual letters, syllables and even entire words into the image series in a nod to logogriphs. A few rhymes are topical (the Persian ambassador’s visit), literary or just silly (cats eating beef spleen, nonsense rhymes).
            Though Oudry offered this oblong album for sale at his house, most copies were distributed by the duchess as “in-jokes of a particular social group” (Barber). I offer a provisional census — 1) BnF Dépt. des estampes Db 23 (1) (leaves cut out and mounted in a later album with other Oudry prints; 40 plates); 2) BnF Dépt. des estampes KH MAT-5 (leaves cut out and mounted in a later album with other games; state not known); 3) BnF 8-H-28477 (later calf-backed drab boards, lacking plates 2-3 and the final leaf of solutions; not colored; La Vallière-Paulmy ex.); 4) Destailleur-Rothschild (Waddesdon Manor; lacking the four solution leaves; colored); 5) Morgand (without the dedication and solution leaves — possibly the present example; colored); 6) that offered here. In good condition (some hand soiling, a few ink spots), Madame de Prime and Riberac in early manuscript, bookplate of Fernand J. Nyssen (1893-1964).
¶Castex, “Le Livre de Rébus ou Logogriphes gravés par J.-B. Oudry: un péché de jeunesse?” in Jeux de mots en images: Brève histoire du rébus français…du XVII^e siècle… Revue de la Bibliothèque nationale 18 (2004) 57-69; Robert-Dumesnil, Le Peintre-Graveur français II: 193-201,8 & 14-53; Opperman, J.-B. Oudry I: 35 & II: E4 & E10-E49 & Fig. 36; Destailleur, Catalogue (13.IV.1891) 976; Barber et al., The James A. de Rothschild Bequest at Waddesdon Manor. Printed Books and Bookbindings 525, binding apparently identical to that of the present example; Librairie Morgand, Bulletin mensuel n.s. 5 (1907) 675; Santi, Bibliografia della enigmistica 418; Schenck, Das Bilderrätsel 27, 60-2,  179 & Abb. 50.

Item #11961

Price: $44,000.00