AVELINE Pierre [Vues du château de Versailles, et d’autres monuments et jardins parisiens]

A very attractive composite album  with 47 views of gardens and fountains of the royal or aristocratic residences in or around Paris, the larger portion depicting Versailles. All these plates are brilliantly coloured and illuminated, heigntened with gold and silver.

Other than Versailles (24), it contains views of Marly (5), Saint Cloud (3), Meudon (3), Fontainebleau (3), Chantilly (2), Arcueil (1), Conflans (1), Choisy (1), Ruel (1), St Cyr (1), St Germain-en -Laye (1), and Vincennes (1).

The Chateau Ruel, one of the residences of Cardinal Richelieu, was demolished in 1832; this view is therefore one of the rare testimonies of the wonderful garden and its spectacular cascade fountain.

Pierre Aveline (1656-1722), engraver, publisher and print dealer, was specialized in the representation of gardens, palaces and monuments in France. More than 400 of these views are attributed to him. In 1686 he obtained the privilege, for ten years, to engrave, print and sell “the profile of the royal houses”. In 1695 he sold it to Nicolas de Poilly. He then engraved and printed Views of Versailles and other gardens, of which about a hundred are known (according to Weigert). At the same time he published theatre sets designed by Giacomo Torelli, Niccolo Enea Bartolini, and C. Carpoli.

Provenance : member of the Becdelièvre et de Coutance family, with a note dated 1773, as well as four wax seals on the endpapers and a childish drawing on the verso of the first plate.