COYPEL (Charles-Antoine) - CERVANTES SAAVEDRA (Miguel de). - Lot 22

COYPEL (Charles-Antoine) - CERVANTES SAAVEDRA (Miguel de). Les Principales avantures de l'incomparable chevalier errant Don Quichotte de La Manche; peintes par Charles Coypel, premier peintre du roi, Et gravées, sous sa direction, par les plus habiles Artistes en ce genre. Paris: Jacques-François Chereau, [circa 1770]. - In-folio, 440x381: (1 f.), 22 plates. Bradel-style white half parchment with corners, smooth spine with title of collection calligraphed in black and red, untrimmed (Durvand). Pierre Mouriau de Meulenacker, Les éditions Liégeoises de Don Quichotte de 1750 à 1795, in: Le Livre & l'estampe, LII, 2006, n°165, pp. 103-104. - Cohen, 214-215. Reissue of 22 of the 25 plates engraved after paintings by Charles-Antoine Coypel (1694-1752) to illustrate the main episodes of Cervantes Saavedra's famous Don Quixote. The history of these engravings is summarized by Pierre Mouriau de Meulenacker: "Charles-Antoine Coypel (1694-1752) was commissioned around 1714 to create 28 drawings to produce a series of tapestries on Don Quixote. The tapestries were woven by the Manufacture des Gobelins, and some are currently in the collections of the Getty Museum, Château de Compiègne, and in various public and private collections. There were over 9 versions of the tapestry series and, in total, over 200 tapestries produced. The surviving cartoons are in Compiègne. Coypel's cartoons were painted between 1717 and 1735, with the exception of the last one in 1751. Of these 28 originals, 3 were never engraved or used in any edition. The others were copied and engraved several times, and used to illustrate numerous editions of Cervantes' works during the eighteenth century. Coypel's drawings were first engraved on copperplate and published in Paris in 1724 in an album in f° entitled Les aventures de Don Quichotte de Cervantes peintées par C. Coypel, Boucher et Nic. Cochin, engraved by MM. Surugue, Cochin, Ravenet. This album contained 22 engravings, including 20 by Coypel, one by Boucher and one by Cochin. In 1721, Louis Surrugue obtained an exclusive license to print and sell engravings of Coypel's drawings, which he produced until 1744. The engravings were sold separately or in albums" (Pierre Mouriau de Meulenacker, Les éditions Liégeoises de Don Quichotte de 1750 à 1795, in: Le Livre & l'estampe, LII, 2006, n°165, pp. 103-104). Between 1768 and 1775, the bookseller and print dealer Jacques-François Chereau took the initiative of offering the first proofs of these plates for sale, certainly from the collection of his father, also a print dealer, which he acquired in 1768. The 22 prints that make up the present collection correspond to those published between 1724 and 1730. They are here in first print run, before the numbers, and all bear the address of the engraver Louis Surugue at the bottom. The bibliographies give 1723-1724 as the date of publication for these engravings, but Surugue's address below the engravings indicates that some were actually published around this time, while others were published from 1728 onwards. There are indeed two different addresses, one "au bas de la Montagne Sainte Geneviève" where the engraver practiced from 1720 to 1728, and the other "rue des Noyers" where he settled from 1728 to around 1755. Here are the details: 1. - Don Quichotte conduit par la Folie et Embrasé de l'Amour extravagant de Dulcinée sort de chez luy pour estre Chevalier Errant (engraver: Louis Surugue (1686?-1762), address: "Montagne Sainte Geneviève"). 2. - Don Quixote believes he will receive the Order of Chevalier in the hostelry (engraver: Charles-Nicolas Cochin (1688-1754), dated 1724, Surugue's address: "Montagne Sainte Geneviève"). 3. - Don Quixote, deceived by Sancho, takes a peasant girl for Dulcinea (engraver: Jean-Baptiste Haussard (1679?-1749), Surugue address: "rue des Noyers"). 4. - Dom Quixote takes a barber's basin for Mambrin's armet (engraver: Louis Surugue (1686?-1762), address: "rue des Noyers"). 5. - Sancho s'Eveille et se desespere de ne retrouver plus son cher grison que Gines de passamont luy Enleve (engraver: Simon François Ravenet (1706-1774), Surugue's address: "rue des Noyers"). 6. - La fausse Princesse de Micomicon Vient prier D. Quichotte de la remettre sur le Thrône (engraver: Louis Surugue (1686?-1762), address: "Montagne Sainte Geneviève"). 7. - Dom Quichotte tied to a window by Maritorne's malice (engraver: François Joullain (1697-1778), Surugue's address: "rue des Noyers"). 8. - Bachelier Sanson Carasco, under the name of Chevalier des Miroirs, is defeated by Don Quichotte, who orders him to go and throw himself at Dulcinée's feet (engraver: Nicolas Charles de Silvestre (1