LA BORDE (Jean-Benjamin de). A Selection of Songs Set to Mus - Lot 82

LA BORDE (Jean-Benjamin de). A Selection of Songs Set to Music by M. de La Borde, First Ordinary Chamberlain to the King, Governor of the Louvre. Illustrated with engravings by J.M. Moreau, Dedicated to Madame la Dauphine. Paris, de Lormel, 1773. Four volumes in two large 8vo (235 x 160 mm), contemporary red morocco binding, triple gilt fillet framing the covers, smooth spines divided into panels separated by the gilt fillets and beautifully decorated, interior lace, gilt edges (Derome the Younger, with his label), preserved in two modern red morocco cases. First edition. One of the masterpieces of 18th-century illustration and “perhaps, along with La Fontaine’s Fables and the *Contes des Fermiers Généraux*, the most delightful book due to the charm of its subjects and the variety of costumes depicted therein” (Cohen). Comprising text and notated music, the collection was entirely engraved by Moria and Mlle Vendôme. La Borde (1734–1794), a favorite of King Louis XV, a farmer-general, and an accomplished musician, composed sixty-six romances for him, as well as all the melodies—except for one, which was composed by Lady Hamilton. Among the authors are also Dorat, Denon, Moncrif, Rousseau, la Motte, Saint-Lambert, Voltaire… The illustrations consist of a title page engraved with a floral ornament by Moreau, four frontispieces by Moreau, Le Bouteux, and Le Barbier, engraved by Masquelier and Née, and one hundred figures by Moreau, Le Barbier, Le Bouteux, and Saint-Quentin, engraved by Moreau, Masquelier, and Née. The frontispiece of Volume I consists of the dedication to the Dauphine Marie-Antoinette, whose portrait appears as the frontispiece of Volume II. The charming portrait of La Borde, dated 1774, known as “with the lyre,” engraved by Masquelier after a drawing by Vivant Denon—which, strictly speaking, is not part of the edition but is included in fine copies—is bound at the front of this volume. A SUPERB AND PRECIOUS COPY BELONGING TO MADAME DE LA BORDE, THE AUTHOR’S WIFE, BEAUTIFULLY BOUND IN RED MOROCCO LEATHER BY DEROME THE YOUNGER WITH HIS LABEL. The inside front covers of both volumes bear the bookplate “Bibliothèque de Madame de la Borde.” Adélaïde Suzanne de Vismes (1753–1832) married Jean-Benjamin de La Borde in 1774, shortly after the publication of this work. A reader and lady-in-waiting to Queen Marie-Antoinette, she was herself the author of *Divers poèmes imités de l’anglois* (Paris, Didot, 1785). As a token of his love for his young wife, La Borde later published *Mélanges de poésies dédiés à ma femme* (Paris, 1782) as well as *Recueil de quelques petits vers dédié à Adélaïde par le plus heureux des époux* (Paris, 1784). In 1798, following the death of La Borde—who had been guillotined as a farmer-general in 1793, a few days before Robespierre’s fall—she married Louis-Antoine de Rohan-Chabot, the sixth Duke of Rohan, in her second marriage. Cited by Cohen, this prestigious copy comes from the libraries of David Salomons (ex-libris), Hippolyte Destailleurs (1891, no. 1165), and Louis Cartier (1979, no. 1302). Stains on one page of Volume III. A tear with a small loss of white paper at the lower corner of a leaf in Volume II. Acquired by Émile Rossignol in 1979 at the Cartier auction.

Estimation:€15,000

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