Beschreibung:

Caylus (Anne Claude Philippe, Comte de). Recueil d'Antquities Egyptiennes, Etrusques, Grecques et Romaines,7 volumes including Supplement, mixed editions, Paris: Desaint & Saillant and others, 1756-67, volume I nouvelle edition, 1761, half titles for volumes I, III-VI, numerous (over 800) engraved plates, occasional light spotting, one or two small marginal water stains, all edges gilt, bookplate, contemporary French Cat's Paw calf gilt, joints cracked, spines and edges rubbed, 4to (Quantity: 7) Blackmer 303; Cohen de-Ricci 211."This work is remarkable for its range and for the number of pieces which have been illustrated. Even more remarkable his the fact that most of the objects have been engraved after the originals and have not been taken from other illustrations. Many of the objects came from Caylus's own collection and are now in the Cabinet des Medailles of the Bibliotheque Nationale. Caylus travelled extensively in Italy and continued on to the Levant in the suite of the French ambassador to the Porte, c. 1715-20, but certainly well before 1731 when he was elected to the Academie Royale de Peinture. He was one of the most interesting figures of his time, an archaeologist, connoisseur, litterateur and a competent engraver." (Blackmer). Provenance: Sir William Whitfield CBE (1920-2019), one of the most significant British architects of the second half of the 20th century, notable for his ground-breaking designs for major public projects including Glasgow University Library, the Hunterian Art Gallery (1960-1968), Richmond House in Whitehall (1982-1984), recently selected as one of London’s ten most iconic Postmodern Buildings, Hereford Cathedral’s Mappa Mundi Library (1996), and Hawksmoor’s Baroque masterpiece Christ Church Spitalfields, slowly and carefully restored over three decades from 1970 to 2000 under his direction. He was Surveyor of the Fabric of St Paul’s Cathedral between 1985 and 1990.