A complete set of the magnificent plates from the first French edition of one of the finest Dutch festival books, produced to commemorate the 1691 visit of the Dutch Stadtholder and English King William III of Orange to The Hague. The work was first published in Dutch in 1691 as Komste van Zyne Majesteit Willem III, comprising a text-volume by Govert Bidloo and an atlas-volume. King William III came to the Netherlands to attend a meeting of the allied forces at war with King Louis XIV of France. The city governors of The Hague made elaborate preparations, building four large triumphal arches covered with allegorical paintings and statues. The arch at the town market was accompanied by two obelisks, and painted walls that encircled the entire square.
Romeyn de Hooghe participated in the planning of the decorations and recorded the festivities at their height in the present brilliant series of engravings. They show the splendid arrival in The Hague, associated ceremonies, the enormous triumphal arches, their paintings and sculptures, the nightly illumination of the town hall, fireworks, etc., with most of the plates measuring 32.5 x 44 cm. De Hooghe's engravings are accompanied by a portrait of King William III, engraved by Pieter van Gunst after Johan Brandon. The only plate that differs in the French and Dutch editions is the engraved title-page, the captions of the other engravings appearing in both Dutch and French, and that of the portrait in Latin.
Bidloo's book was published in folio format, with the etched title and the three smaller engravings as full-page plates and the portrait and eleven larger engravings as double-page plates. Here the larger engravings are bound unfolded and the other four pasted together creating two large folio leaves.
All leaves with the manuscript initials in brown ink, probably of an unidentified, 18th-century(?) collector. One plate with three thin creases (printing flaws); a small tear repaired in another, slightly affecting the caption. A good, complete set of plates. Berlin Kat. 2953; Hollstein (Dutch & Flemish) II, 652-667; Landwehr, De Hooghe Book Illustrator, 80; Landwehr, Splendid Ceremonies 147; Verkruijsse 1692.03; for the portrait of William III: Van Someren, Cat. Portretten 371; cf. STCN 851446663 (with text).