viii, 268 pp. 8vo, early 19th-cent. marbled boards (spine defective). Amsterdam: P. Yver, [1785].

The extremely rare French edition (there was an edition in Dutch the same year) of this catalogue of an impressive sale. A contemporary annotator has supplemented it with prices, buyers’ names, and commentary on the artworks, almost all dismissive, in the margins. Van Slingelandt (1701-82), a great patron of the arts who lived in Dordrecht, amassed one of the most notable Dutch painting collections of the 18th century. This heavily annotated volume is the first and most important part of the sale, describing 701(!) paintings along... More