PICART, Bernard, partly after REMBRANDT and others.
Recueil de lions, dessinez d'après nature par divers maitres & gravez, ... Divisé en six livres chacun de six feuilles.
Amsterdam, Bernard Picart [title-print also: Paris, François Chereau], 1729 (engraved 1728-1729). Oblong 4to (18.5 x 24 cm). With a letterpress title-page in red and black with Picart's engraved "device, 1 title-print and 42 lion prints in 6 series, on 37 leaves, all engraved by Bernard Picart after drawings made by himself (8, all from life), Rembrandt (18), Charles le Brun (6), Albrecht Dürer (1), Paulus Potter (1) and unattributed (8). Late 19th-century pimpled red cloth with the spine at the head of the pages. Rebacked in red cloth. [1], [1 blank], 6 pp. plus 37 engraved plates with title-print & 42 lion prints.
€ 5,000
First edition of a complete set of six series of lion prints (30 full-page, 12 half-page, on 36 inserted leaves) engraved by Bernard Picart (1673-1733), including at least 8 from his own drawings from life and others after drawings by various masters, including 18 after Rembrandt. Series A begins with a print showing 12 detail figures of paws and claws and continues with prints showing 2 lions each (except 1 showing 1 lion). Series B shows lion heads (1 to 3 per print), all after Le Brun. The rest show one lion each (except 1 showing 2 lions). They depict male and female lions standing, reclining and eating.
Picart, a celebrated French artist-engraver, studied with his father and worked in Paris together with François Chéreau, who sold the present print series there. He came to Holland in 1710, living and working in Amsterdam from 1711 to his death in 1733.
One print (B3) is sophisticated, coming from another early edition. With small stains in the corners at the head of the leaves, and with an occasional minor marginal defect, but still in good condition. The binding is rebacked as noted, but is otherwise good. Cat. Rijksmuseum I, p. 160; STCN (7 copies); for Picart: Thieme & Becker XXVI, pp. 572-573.
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