(AUCTION CATALOGUE: VALOIS, Charles de).

Catalogue des Bronzes, et autres Curiosités antiques, tant Egyptiennes que Grecques, Romaines & Gauloises; des Médailles antiques & modernes en or, en argent & en bronze; des Médailliers, & des autres effets curieux du Cabinet de feu M. De Valois…Dont la Vente se fera vers la fin du Carême de la présente année 1748 [ca. 1 April]…[by Gersaint].

22 pp., 1 leaf of “Approbation.” Small 8vo (160 x 95 mm.), 19th-century calf-backed marbled boards (joints a little rubbed), red morocco lettering-piece on spine. Paris: Prault & Barrois, 1748.

A rare sale catalogue of the Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Gallic antiquities amassed by Valois (1671-1747), an early connoisseur of ancient objects, who was named antiquaire du roi. This was one of Gersaint’s final sales.

“Valois was the son and nephew of great 17th-century scholars, Adrien and Henri de Valois; antiquary of the king and pensionnaire de l’Académie des inscriptions, he accumulated sculptures, ancient bronze and more than 6000 medals, many from the age of imperial Rome, brought together in his mansion on the Ile Saint-Louis…”–G. Glorieux, A L’Enseigne de Gersaint (2002), pp. 378-79.

The catalogue describes a total of 104 lots, with concise notes. Glorieux adds that the results of the auction were mixed and amounted to only 4316 livres.

Nice copy; we locate only one in North America. Lacking the rare frontispiece mentioned by Lugt. On the verso of the title, there is a useful list of Gersaint’s catalogues since 1736.

❧ Lugt 685. N.B.G., Vol. 45, col. 900.

Price: $1,950.00

Item ID: 6606