Beschreibung:

French flags from the eve of the Revolution Moreau le jeune, 1789-90 MOREAU, Jean-Michel-(1741-1814). [ Collection des drapeaux faits dans les soixante districts de Paris en juillet 1789 . Paris, 1789-90.] The rarest of the illustrated French books of the 18th century, in contemporary hand-color and from the library of the former mayor of Paris executed during the Terror. This series of engravings, unsigned but attributed to Moreau le jeune, of flags for the ten battalions of each of the six divisions of the Garde Nationale. Each plate depicts the flag held by a soldier dressed in the appropriate uniform and colors of the military district. The engraved frontispiece by Jean Dambrun after Moreau, entitled “À un peuple libre,” depicts the people embracing King Louis XVI; Lafayette; and Jean-Sylvain Bailly, the French astronomer and first mayor of Paris after the fall of the Bastille. Bailly was guillotined in the Champs de Mars in November 1793 during the height of the Reign of Terror. The present copy, from his library, includes an undated letter signed by Bailly acknowledging the receipt of this book, as well as another letter dated 4 December 1919 from Anna de Brémont, American journalist and writer, to Mrs. Laughlin offering to sell her the book as a gift for her husband, American diplomat Irwin B. Laughlin. Cohen (6th ed.) 248. Quarto (287 x 202mm). 2 engraved portraits of Bailly; engraved frontispiece; engraved view of the Champs de Mars in Paris; and 60 numbered engravings printed on blue paper, all with contemporary hand-color sometimes heightened in gold, some separated by tissue guards; nos. 1-30 captioned in stencil and nos. 31-60 with engraved captions (occasional toning and spotting). Contemporary full calf, boards decorated with fan designs in corners and matching center ornament, each with small red inlays, edges gilt (rebacked). Provenance: Jean-Sylvain Bailly (1736-1793; laid-in letter) – Sir William Augustus Fraser (1826-1898; bookplate; his sale, Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 22 April 1901, lot 532) – Anna de Brémont (ca. 1849-1922; laid-in letter) – Irwin B. Laughlin (1871-1941; bookplate).