Lot 7•
CHIVALRY [SAINT-FOIX (GERMAIN-FRANCOIS POULLAIN DE)] Catalogue des chevaliers, commandeurs et officiers de L'Ordre du Saint Espirit, Paris, Christophe-Jean-François Ballard, 1760
26 June 2019, 13:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge£800 - £1,200
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CHIVALRY
[SAINT-FOIX (GERMAIN-FRANCOIS POULLAIN DE)] Catalogue des chevaliers, commandeurs et officiers de L'Ordre du Saint Espirit, half-title and title printed in red and black, engraved frontispiece, head- and tail-pieces and over 900 woodcut coats of arms, contemporary calf gilt [by Bonnet], arms of the Ordre du Saint Esprit in gilt on covers, gilt corner-pieces with crowned H, spine gilt with the Cross of the Holy Spirit in six compartments, g.e., gilt turn-ins, scuffed in places, upper cover near detached, extremities worn, folio (392 x 260mm.), Paris, Christophe-Jean-François Ballard, 1760
Footnotes
Large paper copy of this "[ouvrage] d'un grand luxe typographique et qui se présente toujours dans une reliure decorée de la colombe du S. Esprit et d'H couronnés dans les angles, reliure due au relieur Bonnet" (Saffroy). The fine illustrations comprise a frontispiece by Cars after Boucher, head- and tail-pieces by Cars after Gravelot (some featuring royal scenes or portraits), and the numerous coats of arms.
The Order of the Holy Spirit was founded in 1578 in commemoration of the fact that Henri III had been crowned King of Poland (1573) and inherited the throne of France (1574) on two Pentecosts. Loosely inserted is a 2-page scribal copy of a 1642 document admitting into the order the Marquis de Fontenay (soldier, diplomat and historian, Ambassador to England and to Rome).
Provenance: Antoine de Noailles, duc de Mouchy, bookplate (this copy number 2357, "Bel exemplaire en grand papier", in Catalogue de la bibliothèque du château de Mouchy, edited by Léon Techener, 1872).