Beschreibung:

DEMORTAIN, Gilles]. Les plans, profils, et élévations, des ville et château de Versailles ... dessinés et gravés en 1714 et 1715 . Paris: Gilles Demortain, [1716]. [ Bound with :] Pierre LE PAUTRE (1660-1744). Les plans, coupes, profils et élévations de la Chapelle de Chasteau Royal de Versailles . [Paris: Demortain, n.d.]. 2 parts in one volume, 2° (498 x 342mm). Part I with engraved title, engraved privilege dated 1716, 38 numbered plates, with an extra plate of Profil de la Machine de Marly ; part II with engraved title (plate number 1), and 9 plates numbered 2-10. Many plates double-page and on guards. (Lacking 2 unnumbered plates in part I and 3 unnumbered plates in part II as called for in the Berlin Kat. and Millard copies). 18th-century speckled calf (rebacked, corners repaired). Provenance : 2nd Marquess of Bute (Luton Library bookplate). The Demortain engravings of Versailles were made in 1714-1715 at the very end of Louis XIV's life, and therefore record the chateau and its gardens in their most complete state under the Sun King. The accompanying Les plans, coupes...de la Chapelle de Versailles comprises the "superb engravings of the Versailles chapel [which] is the chief among Pierre Le Pautre's extensive and excellent oeuvre" (Millard p.362). This copy includes 16 additional plates of Versailles from Mariette's L'Architecture Françoise illustrating the stables, the Orangerie, and the Clagny chateau. Cohen-de Ricci 808; Berlin Kat. 2491, 2493; Millard 121-22.