LA MOTTE (Antoine Houdar de). Fables nouvelles,... Lot 16

LA MOTTE (Antoine Houdar de). Fables nouvelles, dédiées au roy. Avec un discours sur la fable. Paris : Grégoire Dupuis, 1719. - In-4, 281 x 209 : xlij, 358 pp, (1 f.), 1 plate. Red morocco, double cold fillet framing the boards, ribbed spine decorated with cold fillets, interior gilt lace, double endpapers, gilt edges (Petit succr de Simier). Dacier, Trésors des bibliothèques de France, 1929, tome II, p. 1-14. - Cohen, 594-595. Sought-after edition, considered by Dacier to be the true first French painter's book published in the 18th century. It includes a vignette on the title engraved by Simoneau after Vleughels, a frontispiece engraved by Tardieu after Coypel and 101 superb copper-engraved vignettes, more than half of which are based on drawings by the famous painter Claude GILLOT (1673-1722), Watteau's master, but also by Coypel, Edelinck, B. Picart and Ranc. Copy on large paper, cited by Cohen, bound by Petit and enriched with two portraits of the author at the head, one engraved by Dupin after Ranc, published by Odieuvre, the second, re-engraved to book format, engraved by Edelinck also after Ranc. It comes from two major collections: that of Emmanuel Martin, whose library was dispersed in 1877, and that of bookbinder Léon Gruel (1841-1923). Two slight tears to spine, two corners slightly dulled. Perfect condition except for a light ink stain in the margin of page 275. The frontispiece has been bound after the title. Provenance: Emmanuel Martin, with 2 different bookplates, at the beginning and end of the copy (1877, no. 218). - Léon Gruel, with bookplate.