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Extremely rare first edition of Crispijn de Passe's portraits of courtesans

PASSE the YOUNGER, Crispijn de.
Miroir des plus belles courtisanes de ce temps. Spigel der Alderschoonste courtisanen deses tyts. The loocking glass of the fairest courtiers of these tymes.


With an engraved title (111 x 151 mm.) of an interior with a man sitting at the fire and smoking a pipe, a woman showing him the portrait of a lady; in the background a couple  is looking at framed pictures of ladies. The title, in French, Dutch and English is engraved on the table-cover, and 40 unnumbered portraits of one man and 39 women in ovals (each ca. 80 x 60 mm.), two on a page with French verses printed underneath (4 lines). Nrs. 3/4, 5/6, 7/8, 11/12, 15/16, 19/20: 2 separate plates on a page, the others two portraits on one plate (Franken lists only 3/4, 11/12, 15/16 and 19/20 as printed from two separate plates).

With an engraved title (111 x 151 mm.) of an interior with a man sitting at the fire and smoking a pipe, a woman showing him the portrait of a lady; in the background a couple  is looking at framed pictures of ladies. The title, in French, Dutch and English is engraved on the table-cover, and 40 unnumbered portraits of one man and 39 women in ovals (each ca. 80 x 60 mm.), two on a page with French verses printed underneath (4 lines). Nrs. 3/4, 5/6, 7/8, 11/12, 15/16, 19/20: 2 separate plates on a page, the others two portraits on one plate (Franken lists only 3/4, 11/12, 15/16 and 19/20 as printed from two separate plates).

With an engraved title (111 x 151 mm.) of an interior with a man sitting at the fire and smoking a pipe, a woman showing him the portrait of a lady; in the background a couple  is looking at framed pictures of ladies. The title, in French, Dutch and English is engraved on the table-cover, and 40 unnumbered portraits of one man and 39 women in ovals (each ca. 80 x 60 mm.), two on a page with French verses printed underneath (4 lines). Nrs. 3/4, 5/6, 7/8, 11/12, 15/16, 19/20: 2 separate plates on a page, the others two portraits on one plate (Franken lists only 3/4, 11/12, 15/16 and 19/20 as printed from two separate plates).

With an engraved title (111 x 151 mm.) of an interior with a man sitting at the fire and smoking a pipe, a woman showing him the portrait of a lady; in the background a couple  is looking at framed pictures of ladies. The title, in French, Dutch and English is engraved on the table-cover, and 40 unnumbered portraits of one man and 39 women in ovals (each ca. 80 x 60 mm.), two on a page with French verses printed underneath (4 lines). Nrs. 3/4, 5/6, 7/8, 11/12, 15/16, 19/20: 2 separate plates on a page, the others two portraits on one plate (Franken lists only 3/4, 11/12, 15/16 and 19/20 as printed from two separate plates).

With an engraved title (111 x 151 mm.) of an interior with a man sitting at the fire and smoking a pipe, a woman showing him the portrait of a lady; in the background a couple  is looking at framed pictures of ladies. The title, in French, Dutch and English is engraved on the table-cover, and 40 unnumbered portraits of one man and 39 women in ovals (each ca. 80 x 60 mm.), two on a page with French verses printed underneath (4 lines). Nrs. 3/4, 5/6, 7/8, 11/12, 15/16, 19/20: 2 separate plates on a page, the others two portraits on one plate (Franken lists only 3/4, 11/12, 15/16 and 19/20 as printed from two separate plates).



(Utrecht?), Crispijn de Passe the elder, 1630. Oblong 8vo. Contemporary vellum. With an engraved title (111 x 151 mm.) of an interior with a man sitting at the fire and smoking a pipe, a woman showing him the portrait of a lady; in the background a couple  is looking at framed pictures of ladies. The title, in French, Dutch and English is engraved on the table-cover, and 40 unnumbered portraits of one man and 39 women in ovals (each ca. 80 x 60 mm.), two on a page with French verses printed underneath (4 lines). Nrs. 3/4, 5/6, 7/8, 11/12, 15/16, 19/20: 2 separate plates on a page, the others two portraits on one plate (Franken lists only 3/4, 11/12, 15/16 and 19/20 as printed from two separate plates). Printed half-title, engraved title, and 20 lvs with 40 portraits.

Extremely rare first edition of this series of portraits of courtesans, which is engraved by Crispijn de Passe the Younger and published by his father. Because of its erotic nature, the Miroir appeared with a fictitious place of publication, the French foreword - printed on the verso of the engraved title - being signed with 'Faict a Adrianople pour l'Auteur'. The original copperplates played a part in the provisional division of the estate between Crispijn the Younger and his father in 1636, showing that this was another of the projects financed by the elder Crispijn. In 1630, after an apprenticeship in Paris, Crispijn the Younger was just back in Utrecht, where his father had been active as a printer and publisher since 1611.
The majority of the portraits were fashionable, aristocratic ladies, but there were also modestly clad Dutch country girls. Information about them is provided in the French quatrains of four lines, which are printed separately below the portraits. These French verses, as well as the letterpress half-title in French ('Le Miroir des plus belles coutisannes de ce temps. Inprimée pour l'Auteur, l'An mill 1630.') and the French foreword on the verso of the engraved title are indications that the book was aimed first and foremost at the French market. When Crispijn de Passe heard of two comparable French versions issued the same year (1630), by the Paris publishers Balthasar Moncornet and Jean I Leblond, he apparently decided late in the day to add a Dutch foreword to make it more accessible to a Dutch public. Copies sold in France, however, could miss this Dutch foreword (as our copy).
In the foreword De Passe excuses himself for the subject matter, assuring the reader that he sets the greatest store by virtuous conduct. His main object, he says, is to provide information about changing fashions, and courtesans were simply quicker to respond to them than ladies of virtue. He merely wants to serve his fellow men, and provide stay-at-homes with a glimpse of the wide world outside. He closes by warning that one should avoid consorting with real prostitutes. With his remarks De Passe tried to place the Miroir in the tradition of costume books, but in fact it belongs more in the genre of the Venetian 'catalogues' of famous courtesans, who were generally grouped by geographical region, complete with their addresses and prices. This context is also clear from the engraved title, which shows a room where the gentlemen could inspect pictures of the girls before making their choice.

Crispijn took his ladies from all over Europe and idealised them to such extent (some of the names are in code) that it is impossible to identify them with real-life subjects. The first two portraits, in any event, are thoroughly imaginary figures: the shepherdess Sylvia and the companion piece with the shepherd Corydon (the only man in the book), who were the most popular pastoral lovers of the period. Then follows (3/4) Mademoiselle le DV.V.V.I, and La belle Dans; (5/6) Margo la Macrelle, and Mademoiselle F.C.E. Court; (7/8) La poudriere Macrelle, and La Bassonpiere ou R.F.; (9/10) Mademoiselle des E.S.R., and La belle Angloise; (11/12) Ann la bavolette, and Margo la belle Gantiere; (13/14) La belle Zavonnare Cour, and Anna la vetze; (15/16) La Donna Juliana belle Courtisana, and La belle Toscanese in Fiorensa; (17/18); Mrs Mary C.P., and My Lady of Oxm.; (19/20) Dority her Chambermaide, and Mrs Margory of Richmonde; (21/22) Signiora Isabella, and Schoon maijken van brussel; (23/24) Schoon Maritgien, and Madam de vit; (25/26) Schoon Iffken van Purmerend, and Besi Janss. van wurmer; (27/28) Die schoone Malmeuyspier, and Vrau Anna L; (29/30) Die wywodin van Dansick, and Karne A.D.; (31/32) Schon Anna Mariavan Strasburg, and Die Metzgers Katerin van Praeg; (33/34) Die balbiereis ket von francfort, and Anna Rosinna van Marpurg; (35/36) Schoon Hester, and Schoon Elisabet; (37/38) La belle Janne d'Aras, and La belle Marotte de Nanci; (39/40) Madamme de C.V.E., and Mademoiselle le DV.V.V.I.

The Miroir was an immediate and resounding success. It was reissued in 1631, 1632 and 1635, and again at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The first edition, however, is extremely rare: Veldman mentions only two copies: in the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington and the Rijksprentenkabinet (?: she reproduces portraits from a later, numbered issue in her book); we could trace only one other copy in the Oesterreichische National Bibliothek with a title in French, Dutch and German (!).

Good copy of this extremely rare edition with the engraved armorial book plates of John Harrison and Hermann Marx.- (Marginal stain in last 7 plates; marginal tear in plate 13/14 (repaired)).
Franken, Van de Passe, 1369; Hollstein XVI, p. 143 (Crispijn  de Passe II, nr. 183); Veldman, Crispijn de Passe and his progeny (2001), pp., 297-9 and figs. 163 (frontispiece) and 164 (with 2 portraits from another edition, numbered 3 and 4: our numbers (4) and (5)).

Related Subjects: 17th Century  Engravings  Netherlands  Portraits  Women 

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€ 39.500,00

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