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A highly influential work on French 18th century garden and landscape design

LABORDE, Alexandre, Comte de.
Description des nouveaux jardins de la France et de ses anciens chateaux, mêlée d'observations sur la vie de la campagne et la composition des jardins.- Description of the modern gardens and ancient castles in France with local observations on rural life and gardening.- Beschreibung der neuen Gärten und alten Schlösser in Frankreich mit Bemerkungen über Landleben und Gartenanlagen.

Engraved vignette on title by Baltard, engraved title with view on the gardens of Méréville by Constant Bourgeois, engraved map of Northern France indicating the gardens and chateaux which are described and illustrated, 2 engraved plans of Malmaison and Ermenonville and 130 engraved plates with views of gardens on 91 lvs. and one plate with engraved figures depicting geological figures.

Engraved vignette on title by Baltard, engraved title with view on the gardens of Méréville by Constant Bourgeois, engraved map of Northern France indicating the gardens and chateaux which are described and illustrated, 2 engraved plans of Malmaison and Ermenonville and 130 engraved plates with views of gardens on 91 lvs. and one plate with engraved figures depicting geological figures.

Engraved vignette on title by Baltard, engraved title with view on the gardens of Méréville by Constant Bourgeois, engraved map of Northern France indicating the gardens and chateaux which are described and illustrated, 2 engraved plans of Malmaison and Ermenonville and 130 engraved plates with views of gardens on 91 lvs. and one plate with engraved figures depicting geological figures.

Engraved vignette on title by Baltard, engraved title with view on the gardens of Méréville by Constant Bourgeois, engraved map of Northern France indicating the gardens and chateaux which are described and illustrated, 2 engraved plans of Malmaison and Ermenonville and 130 engraved plates with views of gardens on 91 lvs. and one plate with engraved figures depicting geological figures.

Engraved vignette on title by Baltard, engraved title with view on the gardens of Méréville by Constant Bourgeois, engraved map of Northern France indicating the gardens and chateaux which are described and illustrated, 2 engraved plans of Malmaison and Ermenonville and 130 engraved plates with views of gardens on 91 lvs. and one plate with engraved figures depicting geological figures.



Paris, Delance, 1808 (-1814). Folio. Contemporary three-quarter green morocco with marbled boards, gilt spine. Engraved vignette on title by Baltard, engraved title with view on the gardens of Méréville by Constant Bourgeois, engraved map of Northern France indicating the gardens and chateaux which are described and illustrated, 2 engraved plans of Malmaison and Ermenonville and 130 engraved plates with views of gardens on 91 lvs. and one plate with engraved figures depicting geological figures. (6), 226 pp.

Beautiful series of engravings depicting 29 French castles and their gardens. One of the first works on contemporary landscape architecture for gardens and a highly influential work on French 18th-century garden and landscape design. Laborde's text supports and mirrors the naturalistic style of landscaping practiced in England and describes how those theories have been effectively used to re-design the gardens at several of the premier estates in France. With text in French, English and German. The work is illustrated with a large map of the surroundings of Paris, indicating the location of the 29 chateaux; 2 engraved plans, one of the park of Malmaison and one of Ermenonville and 130 engraved plates - numbered 1-122 and A-H - of which 58 are full-page, 60 half-page, and 12 with four on a page. The last 8 views (A-H) on two lvs. all have an overlay, inserted with taps over the original view, to show proposed alterations, for example a row of trees, a hill or an architectural monument. All the illustrations are after the designs of Constant Bourgeois with two exceptions: plate 116 by Underwood and plates 121-2 by Bence.
The work starts with a 'Discours préliminaire (p. 1-56), followed by a extended description of four important chateaux and their gardens: Malmaison (p. 58-68; plates 1-11), Morfontaine (p. 69-82; plates 12-27), Ermenonville (p. 83-94; plates 28-43), and Méréville (p. 95-112; plates 44-57).
On p. 113-184 are the descriptions of the smaller chateaux, a.o. Saint-Leu, Mousseaux, Brunehaut, Tracy, Trianon, Maupertuis (plates 58-116). 
p. 185-190: 'Maisons de Campagne': a.o. the estates of Jan Jacques Rousseau, Chateaubriant, the house of Molière at Auteuil and the Park Rambouillet (plates 117-122).
p. 191-219: 'Observations sur la théorie des jardins' (one full-page plate with 21 geological figs. and 8 plates (A-H) on two lvs. with movable parts), in which Laborde approvingly quotes from Uvedale Price. This section is a more practical consideration of the making of a picturesque garden, including site, leveling and moving of the earth, use of water, of bridges, plantations and of buildings, that suggest a knowledge of the publications of Humphrey Repton.
p. 221-226: Table, including a list of plates and subscribers.

For the Description Laborde composed a long discourse on the spirit of country life and the composition of gardens, following the evocations of such earlier writers on the French picturesque garden as the Abbé de Lille. Although the work was written after the Revolution, the melancholic nostalgia and love of nature belong to the last Rousseauian decades before the end of the ancien régime, as does Laborde's remembrance of these beautiful ephemeral gardens.
The Description today is an invaluable record of each of the gardens illustrated, and of a type of garden design that has all but disappeared (Millard Collection).

Magnificent copy on large paper with all plates, including movable parts, in excellent condition.
Berlin Cat. 3479; Millard Architect. Collection I, nr. 84 (p. 221-3 with 2 illustr.); Vicaire, IV 745-746; Ganay 165; cf. Springer p. 80.

Related Subjects: Architecture  Castles  Engravings  France  Gardens  Horticulture 

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