Kolbe & Fanning
Auction 159 6 Mar 2021
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
Storelli's Rare Landmark Study of Nini
Storelli, A. JEAN-BAPTISTE NINI. SA VIE - SON OEUVRE. Tours: Imprimerie A. Mame et Fils, 1896. 4to, contemporary green quarter morocco with marbled sides; spine with five raised bands, lettered in gilt; top page edges gilt; marbled endpapers; original printed paper covers bound in. 177, (1) pages; printed throughout in red and black, title incorporating a fine illustration of a Benjamin Franklin medallion; halftone text figure; 108 detailed descriptions; 72 very fine photographically printed illustrations of medallions in the catalogue, 5 of them depicting Benjamin Franklin. Occasional pencil annotations. Binding in disrepair, with most signatures unsewn and many plates loose, but able to be restored. Good, but improvable. No. 91 of only 200 copies issued of this classic work, most of which have long since perished. Richard Margolis described the work as follows: Storelli was for many years the standard work on Nini. Its usefulness was limited only by its rarity, a mere 200 copies having been printed. It added a number of important details to the known facts of Nini's life; particularly significant is the full text of the employment agreement of October 1, 1772 between Nini and Leray de Chaumont. It provides incontrovertible proof of Nini's existence, and of his engagement at the Château of Chaumont, which the odd claims of the Vignerons on behalf of their ancestor, the ceramicist Claude Gautherot, had attempted to usurp. ¶ Storelli was the first to illustrate all (or nearly all) of Nini's medallions, although only at a stated two-thirds of actual size. While a total of one hundred and seven medallions are described, the great majority from the collection of the Prince de Broglie, thirty-seven of them are variants of basic types, so that seventy major portrait types are listed and illustrated. This is only six more than Villers had described but had not illustrated, many years earlier. ¶ Storelli lists nine different Franklin medallions, including three rarities which are omitted by Villers ... Rarely offered: the copy in the Ford Library realized $1700 hammer in 2004. Forrer IV.276. Ex Bibliothèque du Cerce de l'Union Artistique, with their ink stamp; ex Alain Weil.
Storelli, A. JEAN-BAPTISTE NINI. SA VIE - SON OEUVRE. Tours: Imprimerie A. Mame et Fils, 1896. 4to, contemporary green quarter morocco with marbled sides; spine with five raised bands, lettered in gilt; top page edges gilt; marbled endpapers; original printed paper covers bound in. 177, (1) pages; printed throughout in red and black, title incorporating a fine illustration of a Benjamin Franklin medallion; halftone text figure; 108 detailed descriptions; 72 very fine photographically printed illustrations of medallions in the catalogue, 5 of them depicting Benjamin Franklin. Occasional pencil annotations. Binding in disrepair, with most signatures unsewn and many plates loose, but able to be restored. Good, but improvable. No. 91 of only 200 copies issued of this classic work, most of which have long since perished. Richard Margolis described the work as follows: Storelli was for many years the standard work on Nini. Its usefulness was limited only by its rarity, a mere 200 copies having been printed. It added a number of important details to the known facts of Nini's life; particularly significant is the full text of the employment agreement of October 1, 1772 between Nini and Leray de Chaumont. It provides incontrovertible proof of Nini's existence, and of his engagement at the Château of Chaumont, which the odd claims of the Vignerons on behalf of their ancestor, the ceramicist Claude Gautherot, had attempted to usurp. ¶ Storelli was the first to illustrate all (or nearly all) of Nini's medallions, although only at a stated two-thirds of actual size. While a total of one hundred and seven medallions are described, the great majority from the collection of the Prince de Broglie, thirty-seven of them are variants of basic types, so that seventy major portrait types are listed and illustrated. This is only six more than Villers had described but had not illustrated, many years earlier. ¶ Storelli lists nine different Franklin medallions, including three rarities which are omitted by Villers ... Rarely offered: the copy in the Ford Library realized $1700 hammer in 2004. Forrer IV.276. Ex Bibliothèque du Cerce de l'Union Artistique, with their ink stamp; ex Alain Weil.