DESEGNI DIVERSI INTENTATI E DELINEATI DE GIOVANNI DIARDINI DA FORLI

GIARDINI, Giovanni.  DESEGNI DIVERSI INTENTATI E DELINEATI DE GIOVANNI DIARDINI DA FORLI.  Two parts bound as one.

(Rome): 1714. Folio. Calf spine, contemporary marbled boards. Engraved title and dedication, 53 engraved plates; engraved title and dedication, 46 plates numbered 54-99. First edition, first issue?

A gorgeous rococo pattern book for goldsmiths and silversmiths with both secular and ecclesiastical designs.  The author, Giovanni Giardini (1646-1721), was appointed the Vatican's chief metalworker in 1698.  His designs are reminiscent of Bernini's.  This design book is the most complete record of Giardini's work as many pieces from the Papal collection were melted down by Napoleon's troops.  Rare.  Only one copy is cited by NUC, that at the New York Public Library.  The Berlin Catalogue [1141] calls for one hundred numbered plates as does the copy offered in Robin Halwas' Catalogue 4, but their copies have engraved plate numbers while our copy was numbered by hand, indicating an earlier state of the work.  There is no indication a Plate 100 was ever bound-in this copy.  Sympathetically rebacked, the first title leaf was trimmed and remounted in the distant past; some minor marginal foxing, but generally a very nice, fresh copy of an important and rare work.

 

$3,850.00