Kolbe & Fanning
Auction 165 3 Dec 2022
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Handsome Volume by Babelon on Engraved Gems
Babelon, Ernest. HISTOIRE DE LA GRAVURE SUR GEMMES EN FRANCE DEPUIS LES ORIGINES JUSQU'Ë L'ƒPOQUE CONTEMPORAINE. OUVRAGE ILLUSTRƒ DE GRAVURES DANS LE TEXTE ET ACCOMPAGƒ DE XXII PLANCHES EN PHOTOTYPIE. Paris: SociŽtŽ de Propagation des Livres d'Art, 1902. 4to [28 by 19.5 cm], contemporary brown half morocco with mottled sides; spine with five raised bands, lettered and decorated in gilt; marbled endpapers. xx, 262, (2) pages; 56 text illustrations; 22 exceptionally fine phototype plates. Light rubbing to binding; corner bump to top rear affecting marginal corner tips of some plates; very good or better. A beautifully illustrated volume on engraved gems. Babelon's volumes traces the development of the art of gem engraving, so often coupled in technique with die engraving, from the Merovingian era to his own time. He made the claim, bold at the time but accepted today, that most of the engraved gems set in medieval fixtures that were thought to be from antiquity were in fact products of the middle ages themselves and that the glyptic tradition had continued to develop during the Merovingian and (especially) Carolingian periods before flourishing again during the Renaissance. A scarce and important study.
Estimate: 300 USD
Babelon, Ernest. HISTOIRE DE LA GRAVURE SUR GEMMES EN FRANCE DEPUIS LES ORIGINES JUSQU'Ë L'ƒPOQUE CONTEMPORAINE. OUVRAGE ILLUSTRƒ DE GRAVURES DANS LE TEXTE ET ACCOMPAGƒ DE XXII PLANCHES EN PHOTOTYPIE. Paris: SociŽtŽ de Propagation des Livres d'Art, 1902. 4to [28 by 19.5 cm], contemporary brown half morocco with mottled sides; spine with five raised bands, lettered and decorated in gilt; marbled endpapers. xx, 262, (2) pages; 56 text illustrations; 22 exceptionally fine phototype plates. Light rubbing to binding; corner bump to top rear affecting marginal corner tips of some plates; very good or better. A beautifully illustrated volume on engraved gems. Babelon's volumes traces the development of the art of gem engraving, so often coupled in technique with die engraving, from the Merovingian era to his own time. He made the claim, bold at the time but accepted today, that most of the engraved gems set in medieval fixtures that were thought to be from antiquity were in fact products of the middle ages themselves and that the glyptic tradition had continued to develop during the Merovingian and (especially) Carolingian periods before flourishing again during the Renaissance. A scarce and important study.
Estimate: 300 USD