Sujets de vases grecs, avec leurs inscriptions, tirés de la collection du chevalier Hamilton. Prix, trois francs par Cahier

A Paris: Chez Dannecun, Editeur, Imprimeur en taille-douce, rue de la Harpe, no. 149, à la Tête noire, 1803. First edition. Oblong. In near contemporary half leather, gilt title on spine. Panels covered with marbled paper, edges tinted. Spine worn at edges, opened at tail. With 72 hand-colored plates, many of them with 4 colors (black, orange, yellow, red). Free endpapers creased. Light water stain to lower left corner throughout, not affecting the images. Letterpress explanations for plate no. XXXVII-XLVII not bound into. The last two leaves with double-page letterpress explanations were bound in reverse order.. First edition. Oblong. In near contemporary half leather, gilt title on spine. Panels covered with marbled paper, edges tinted. [9] letterpress leaves, and 72 hand-colored engraved plates. An extremely scarce copy, with 72 plates, of this unusual French version of Hamilton's Collection of Engravings from Ancient Vases mostly of pure Greek workmanship.

The original edition of the Collection of Engravings from Ancient Vases Mostly of Pure Greek Workmanship Discovered in Sepulchres in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies [...] now in the possession of Sir Wm. Hamilton [...] was published in four volumes by Wilhelm Tischbein in Naples between 1791 and 1803, as a catalogue describing and illustrating Hamilton's second vase collection. The plates for this collection, unlike those in his previous catalogue, are line engravings, so as to be more affordable, as well as more useful to artists and manufacturers as a pattern book. Hamilton's previous 4-volume album, Collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities From the Cabinet of the Hon. W. Hamilton (1766-1776) was one of the most splendid publications of the 18th century, and constitutes in itself a chapter in European cultural history, by its aim to disseminate a new style throughout Europe (Schutze, 2) The success of this programme could be measured by the appearance of a French edition of the work in a smaller-format in five volumes (1785-1788), and also by the present, less known album, which was published around 1803 in Paris, issued in a sequel of twelve livraisons (an advertisement for the sale of the last five livraisons could be found in the Journal de Paris no. 191, of 1 April 1803., p. 1215).

In the present oblong album, each plate is carefully executed and - unlike the original Naples edition - hand painted, in the same manner as in Hamilton's first Collection, many of them with four colors. The original drawings, either copies of those by Tischbein for the second Collection, or made directly after the vases in Hamilton's collection, were made by Humbert de Superville. Although his name is not mentioned in the book, neither indicated on the plates yet, in the collection of the Leiden University Libraries sixteen of Humbert de Superville's original sketches for these illustrations are held.

William Hamilton (1730-1803) was the British envoy to the Court of Naples, living there for 37 years. Besides his official duties as ambassador and his scientific studies of volcanoes, he also acted as a collector of antiquities and paintings, as well as a dealer of art, antiquities, and furniture for collectors and friends in England. He is best known for amassing and publishing two great collections of Greek vases. His first collection, including 730 vases, besides other ancient objects, was sold to the British Museum in 1771, the second - except for a part which went down with the ship carried them to England in 1798 - was sold on private and public sales in 1801. (Ramage 1990).