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4to, 20 x 27.5cm. Blonde calf, decorated ribbed spine (contemporary binding). Scuffs and rubbing, leather losses, split joint at top.Engraved title, dedication, 12 pages of text, portrait of the Duke of Choiseul, and 127 (of 128) finely engraved plates numbered 1-123 (excluding unnumbered plate 4, normally located between plates 38 and 39), including figures 44 and 45 engraved on a single plate, plate 47 numbered twice, 5 bis plates -68, 69, 76, 78, and 101-, plate 74 on a double page, figures 93 and 94 on a single plate. Plates 38 and 39 have shorter margins. Small loss to plate 33 without affecting the engraving. Fresh pages. Bookplate with the coat of arms of De Clos de Balme. .The Duke of Choiseul's cabinet contained mainly paintings by Flemish and Dutch masters such as Rembrandt (including a self-portrait), Breughel, Teniers, Ruysdael, Rubens, N. Berghem, and Van Dyck. It also contained a few canvases by Titian, Le Nain, Robert, and Greuze. .).Pierre-François Basan (1723-1797) was one of the leading figures in the 18th-century world of printmaking. He was an engraver, publisher, expert, and iconographer. He also brought Rembrandt to France, publishing one of the first engraved collections of his works, printed on his original copperplates, and Teniers, engraving many of his paintings with Le Bas. After a brillant career in the army, Etienne-François, duc de Choiseul (1719-1785) married the daughter of Crozat. Thanks to the protection he received from Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV's mistress, Choiseul was made ambassador to the Holy See, and before long he was appointed minister of foreign affairs and later to the ministry of war and navy. After the death of his benefactor Madame de Pompadour in 1772 Choiseul was disgraced and exiled. Choiseul was a great collector, and asked Basan, one of the most eminent experts of the time, to organize a catalogue of his collection. Although dated 1771 on the title page, the catalogue was finished a year later. Choiseul was unfortunately disgraced the same year and a sale was organized by the expert Boileau on 6-10 April 1772; the remaining part of the collection was sold after Choiseul's death on 18 December 1786. This unique copy has the prices realized at the famous 1772 sale: La collection vendue est celle d'étienne-François, duc de Choiseul (1719-1785), ambassadeur à Rome de 1754 à 1757, puis à Vienne de 1757 à 1758 ; créé duc de Choiseul en 1758, il devient premier ministre de fait mais tombe en disgrâce à partir de 1770.Born in 1719, Étienne François de Choiseul-Beaupré Stainville first had a military career, rising to the rank of lieutenant general of the king's armies. He was ambassador to the Holy See between 1754 and 1757 and then to Vienna in 1758. That same year, he received the title of Duke of Choiseul-Amboise and was appointed Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and then, in 1761, for the Navy and for War.The Duke of Choiseul pursued a policy of revenge against England; to do this, he relied on the alliance with Austria and the Bourbons of Spain, Parma and Naples through the Pacte de Famille signed in 1761. He also negotiated the marriage of the Duke of Berry, future Louis XVI, with the archduchess of Austria, Marie-Antoinette.Under his government, the borders of France widened, with the inclusion of Lorraine in 1766 and the acquisition of Corsica in 1768.A friend of the Encyclopaedists and Madame de Pompadour, he was interested in the art and philosophy of his time; his Voltairean spirit distanced him from Rousseau, whose Social Contract (1762) he rejected.At the beginning of 1770, Choiseul acted more and more without the king's consent, often even against his will. Madame Du Barry, to whom he had spoken undiplomatically, played a role in his eviction from the court at the end of 1770. His exile, to his estate of Chanteloup, near Amboise, was a triumph: everyone flocked to the Duke of Choiseul. He died in 1785, leaving behind him a disastrous personal financial situa.
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