Catalogue des Tableaux précieux des Ecoles d’Italie, de Hollande, de Flandres et de France; Dessins...
38 pp. 8vo (195 x 128 mm.), late 19th-cent. brown morocco-backed marbled boards, spine gilt. Paris: Paillet, Boileau & La Fontaine, An VI [1798].
The scarce auction catalogue of a collection of paintings assembled by the artist and dealer Lafontaine (1758-1835). In a recent study, Carole Blumenfeld writes: “As early as 1796, Lafontaine organized two initial sales without catalog at the Hôtel de Bullion…during the course of 1798, he effected a clear change in his commercial strategy, appreciably reducing the proportion of French artists between his two sales, in January and December, and investing the profits from the first sale... More