tant en bronze qu'en couleur de terre, peints d'après sa nouvelle découverte métallique.
Paris, 1837 [but 1836-1845].
Exceptionally rare. A near-complete copy of an exceptionally rare work, produced entirely in the artist's hand (with the exception of four letterpress leaves).
Little is known about Beauvalet. He produced three other works in his lifetime: a manual on Oriental and Chinese painting in relief (1832), another on miniature watercolours with an emphasis on metallic reflections (1835), and a third on making picture frames (1850). The images of Etruscan and Greek vases, chariots, tomb fragments, equestrian statues and other subjects in relief on metal are taken from Beauvalet's drawings made during a long sojourn in Italy. He visited monuments, galleries, and private homes in Naples, Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Rome, where he had an audience with Pope Gregory XVI (who awarded him a medal of honour for drawing his portrait). On his return to France in 1836, Beauvalet commenced this work, which he would not finish for another nine years.
Beauvalet claimed that his technique is original drawing rather than mechanical reproduction, using an intricate and unique sequence of stencils, coloured with the saturated tones and metallic pigments that he created himself. The graduated colouring is quite extraordinary, imbuing the images with the realistic gleam of metalwork and the smooth sheen of terracotta. It seems probable that Beauvalet improved upon the ancient technique of rainbow printing or blending for the colouring and applied the final touches by hand.
The plates of Vases grecs et étrusques were issued in fascicles of forty-eight pairs, of which one was a terracotta vase and the other a bronze vessel. Available by subscription only at the price of 32 francs for each fascicle, it is likely that Beauvalet completed a very small number of copies. It is also probable that interest and enthusiasm in the work dwindled in time, so long was it in the making, that a number of subscribers must have dropped out.
Exceptionally rare. The work does not appear in the standard bibliographies and we have only been able to locate four copies in institutional holdings with diverse contents: two in the US (Getty Research Institute; Avery Library at Columbia), and two in Europe (British Library, UK; BCU Lausanne, Switzerland).
Folio (53.8 x 41.3 cm); 94 plates by and after Beauvalet (of 96, lacking fascicle XLIV), executed in stencil on wove and Bristol papers, finished in colours and heightened with penwork, set within hand-ruled frames of black or gold, some signed 'St. Victor' in either black or gold ink corresponding to frame, stencilled title-page in colours with ornamental border dated 1845, letterpress half-title, title-page and notice printed in red and black in roman and black letter, 6 manuscript table leaves in alternating red and blue ink, stencilled gothic and roman lettering and styles resembling a medieval calendar table with en bars heightened with penwork flourishes, object classifications in shadowed red and black lettering on stencilled red and gold grounds, stencilled tailpiece, very occasional minor finger-soiling to margins, else plates generally clean and fresh, foxing to letterpress sheets; half navy morocco, ruled in gilt, spine with 5 raised bands, gilt in compartments, gilt lettering to second and fourth compartments, white moiré endpapers; an exceptional copy.
Little is known about Beauvalet. He produced three other works in his lifetime: a manual on Oriental and Chinese painting in relief (1832), another on miniature watercolours with an emphasis on metallic reflections (1835), and a third on making picture frames (1850). The images of Etruscan and Greek vases, chariots, tomb fragments, equestrian statues and other subjects in relief on metal are taken from Beauvalet's drawings made during a long sojourn in Italy. He visited monuments, galleries, and private homes in Naples, Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Rome, where he had an audience with Pope Gregory XVI (who awarded him a medal of honour for drawing his portrait). On his return to France in 1836, Beauvalet commenced this work, which he would not finish for another nine years.
Beauvalet claimed that his technique is original drawing rather than mechanical reproduction, using an intricate and unique sequence of stencils, coloured with the saturated tones and metallic pigments that he created himself. The graduated colouring is quite extraordinary, imbuing the images with the realistic gleam of metalwork and the smooth sheen of terracotta. It seems probable that Beauvalet improved upon the ancient technique of rainbow printing or blending for the colouring and applied the final touches by hand.
The plates of Vases grecs et étrusques were issued in fascicles of forty-eight pairs, of which one was a terracotta vase and the other a bronze vessel. Available by subscription only at the price of 32 francs for each fascicle, it is likely that Beauvalet completed a very small number of copies. It is also probable that interest and enthusiasm in the work dwindled in time, so long was it in the making, that a number of subscribers must have dropped out.
Exceptionally rare. The work does not appear in the standard bibliographies and we have only been able to locate four copies in institutional holdings with diverse contents: two in the US (Getty Research Institute; Avery Library at Columbia), and two in Europe (British Library, UK; BCU Lausanne, Switzerland).
Folio (53.8 x 41.3 cm); 94 plates by and after Beauvalet (of 96, lacking fascicle XLIV), executed in stencil on wove and Bristol papers, finished in colours and heightened with penwork, set within hand-ruled frames of black or gold, some signed 'St. Victor' in either black or gold ink corresponding to frame, stencilled title-page in colours with ornamental border dated 1845, letterpress half-title, title-page and notice printed in red and black in roman and black letter, 6 manuscript table leaves in alternating red and blue ink, stencilled gothic and roman lettering and styles resembling a medieval calendar table with en bars heightened with penwork flourishes, object classifications in shadowed red and black lettering on stencilled red and gold grounds, stencilled tailpiece, very occasional minor finger-soiling to margins, else plates generally clean and fresh, foxing to letterpress sheets; half navy morocco, ruled in gilt, spine with 5 raised bands, gilt in compartments, gilt lettering to second and fourth compartments, white moiré endpapers; an exceptional copy.
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