(Vézénobres)MAUGENDRE, A.   ALBUM DE VÉZENOBRES.         Paris: Auguste Bry, n.d. (ca   1850).          Built in a town rich with Roman and Mediaeval ruins, the 18th century Chateau de Vézénobres was the inspired creation of the marquis Charles de Calvière, one-time page to Louis XIV, fellow student with Voltaire, companion and military aide to Louis XIV and friend to Madame de Pompadour. Calvière wanted his chateau and park to serve not only as a testament to his heroism as a soldier, but also as a reflection of his standing as an art collector and man of taste. In his short history of the town of Vézénobres Abbé J. Redier described the park of the chateau as a "charmante et petite reproduction de celui de Versailles à une étendue de seize hectares." The chateau and the park remain private today. The lithographed views drawn for this album by Maugendre help us to visualize their appearance in the middle of the nineteenth century. The first plate depicts a bosquet centered around a fountain in front of the courtyard to the chateau while the next view pulls back from the first to show the park as a setting for the chateau with the town visible in the distance. Other plates show the chateau d'eau and parterre, the planted approach and courtyard of the theater, a wooded approach to the chapel and other scenes within the gardens. All the scenes depict plantings and at least one gardener is shown at work in each scene. Rare. No copies listed in OCLC or the CCFr.   Oblong folio (29.5 x 43.5 cm); title page with a small tinted lithographed view measuring 7.3 x 11 cm. + 7 tinted lithograph views, each measuring approximately 22.5 x 31 cm.            Original embossed pebble cloth with gilt title on upper cover, worn, frayed at edges; binding shaken; mild foxing, some browning in the gutters and a very faint old damp stain affecting plates, mostly at margins, but the images themselves appear quite clean and fresh, any foxing or old stains virtually disappearing into the tint of the lithographs. ***Signed presentation inscription from the Marquis de Calvière, dated Paris 1862. $1,200.00

CLICK To Return To Catalogue     /    HOME