LE CANU, Jean Dominique Étienne.   COLLECTION OF ENGRAVED ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNS.         Paris, circa   1760s.          A recueil factice of engraved designs by J.D.E. Le Canu, a student of Delaunay, who was active during the 1760s. Included is a series of four cahiers of engravings, with six plates each, showing original designs for fountains, coach gates ("portes cochères"), two town houses (elevation, section and plan), and mantel pieces. There are also two additional suites in smaller format, one with seven antique stoves, the other with six antique tombs. There are two large (37 x 24 cm) engravings of fountains and three other smaller engravings (a stove, a fountain, and a tomb). Of the separately issued original designs by Le Canu which are listed by Guilmard (Style Louis XVI, 101), there are only two additional engravings of a fountain and six engravings of tombs which are not included here. Three of the smaller format designs already noted, however, are not cited by Guilmard: a stove, a garden fountain and a tomb (although this latter may be one of the six cited above). Le Canu also engraved plates for the ENCYCLOPEDIE of Diderot and d'Alembert and for Delafosse's NOUVELLE ICONOLOGIE. All of his engravings are rare. The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas has a copy of each of the three cahiers with designs for fountains, town houses, and mantels. (Columbia also owns the mantels). No others are listed by OCLC. The present collection of works was apparently assembled by a nineteenth-century collector who had them bound together. Another similarly comprehensive collection of Le Canu's work would be difficult to find.   Folio (34.5 x 25 cm); 42 engravings on 34 leaves.   Guilmard, Style Louis XVI, 101.          Contemporary half-calf with marbled boards; the smaller format engravings are carefully edge-mounted on heavier sheets with cut-outs allowing the engravings to be viewed from front and back; many of the other engravings are skillfully remargined to uniform dimension; all sheets are mounted on stubs. $3,000.00

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