[ANTIQUARIAN BIBLIOGRAPHY / LIBRARY SALE CATALOGUE]. Catalogue des livres, tableaux, desseins et estampes de feu de M. LE COMTE DE VENCE, Lieutenant General des Armees du Roy Commandant a la Rochelle, & Colonel du Regiment Royal-Corse by Villeneuve, Claude Alexandre de (Comte de Vence) - 1760

PARIS: Chez Prault, fils aine, Libraire-Imprimeur, Quai de | Conty, vis-a-vis le descente du Pont-Neuf, a la Charite, 1760. Hardcover. Very good. 8vo, 213 x 141 x 15 mm (binding), 209 x 132 x 9 mm (text block). [pi]3, a2, A-I8, K6, 2π2, 2a-b8, c6. [6], iv, 151, [5], xliv pp. 1771 book lots, unpriced + 247 art lots, all prices and some buyer's names in contemporary MS. With two states of the portrait by Cochin, one "aux armes," the other with the name of the former owner. Bound in 19th-century French half morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, full-gilt spine, lettered and dated, made marbled endpapers, top edge painted vermilion, green silk bookmark, extremities trifle rubbed, nice copy with many deckles preserved. The sale of books took place 25 June to 12 July, 1760; the art on 24 November 1760 (some sources emend this to 9-17 February, 1761). ¶ This copy , apparently printed on fine paper, belonged to the great painter and Villeneuve's own art curator Jean-Baptiste Descamps (1714-1791), printed on superior paper and containing two states of the Villeneuve's portrait by Watelet after Cochin. This is the two-part sale catalogue of the important collection of Claude Alexandre de Villeneuve, Comte de Vence, Lieutenant-General des Armées du Roy, commandant a la Rochelle, & Colonel du Regiment Royal-Corse. The first component of the catalogue is the sale of the Library, the second being the sale of a selection of the most significant works of art (here with all the prices realized in contemporary MS). The auctioneer divided the books into two principal groups: A). History; B). everything else (the former outnumbers the latter by two to one). Of especial interest to Villeneuve was the study of Provence: there are 225 titles covering its geography, history, government, law, and literature, as well as genealogies of illustrious Provencois. Villeneuve's library has been recently described as one of the most important in France at that time (SOURCE: François Moureau, "La plume et le plomb: espaces de l'imprime et du manuscrit au siecle des Lumieres," 2006). Not in North, not in Taylor; not in Blogie. Friedhelm Beckmann, "Franzosische Privatbibliotheken," p. 125 (in: Archiv fur Geschichte des Buchwesens, XXXI, 1988).

¶ Villeneuve's collection of paintings, drawings and prints is justly considered to be among the foremost of his day, selected with discernment by J.-B. Descamps, the author of the influential "La Vie des peintres flamands, allemands et hollandaise" (1753-1763), for which see especially Vol. II, p. 165 ("Le Cabinet de M. Le Comte de Vence"). The sale included major masterpieces by non-French artists such as Maes, Steenwyck the Elder, Breughel the Elder, and Rembrandt. Only 5% of the lots failed to sell. We note with interest the unsold (?) lot 179, an ink drawing of Villeneuve by Charles-Nicolas Cochin -- almost certainly the same drawing used to cut the engraved portrait found at the beginning of the volume. It is noteworthy that the Metropolitan Museum of Art possesses a number of prints that were engraved after paintings and drawings from the Comte de Vence Collection, including -- but certainly not limited to -- Adam Willaerts, "Les Pecheurs," Lot 18 = Accession number 53.600.4355; Jan Brueghel the Elder "Selling Fish at Scheveningen" Lot 24 = 49.95.1462; Breugel the Elder, "Embrasement de Troyes" Lot 154 = 53.600.4352; L. Aubert "La Vieille" Lot 172 (drawings section) = 62.602.121, etc.

¶ REFERENCE: Lugt 1121. The Bibliotheca Bibliographica Breslaueriana Sammelband, containing the two Villeneuve catalogues and four others (all but one priced), realized $2,640 eight years ago (Christie's New York, 23 March 2005, lot 466). This is the only other copy we've seen on the market.

¶ PROVENANCE: "Descamps 1760" (on title page) -- Louis Clement de Ris (1820-1882), purchased by him in 1864. Ris invariably employed the title "Comte" although as a child he was adopted and the title was not passed on to him. He became a great art collector and served as a Conservateur at the Louvre and subsequently at Versailles.