Lot 221
Gallon, Jean-Gaffin
Machines et inventions approuvées par l'Academie royale des sciences
Auction: From the Library of Professor Roland Paxton | 01 October 2026 from 10am | Lots 221 to 252
Description
depuis son établissement jusqu'à present; avec leur description. Paris: Gabriel Martin, Jean-Baptiste Coignard, fils, Hippolyte-Louis Guerin, 1735. First edition, volumes 1-4 (of 7), 4to (25 x 19.2cm), contemporary calf, rebacked and recornered, edges dyed red, half-titles, title-pages printed in red and black, 297 engraved folding plates numbered 1-295 (with bis plates of 105 and 177), browning, numeric ink-stamps to versos of title-pages, volume 1 initial blank, half-title and title-page and volume 4 initial blank and half-title discreetly strengthened with Japanese tissue along edges [Cicognara 917] (4)
Provenance
From the collection of the late Professor Roland Paxton MBE FICE FRSE (1932-2025), 'Britain's foremost historian of civil engineering' (Telegraph, obituary, 12th November 2025); Professor Paxton was also a leading conservationist of Britain's engineering heritage, and led successful campaigns to restore two of the world's most important railway structures, the Laigh Milton Viaduct in Ayrshire, the world's oldest surviving railway bridge, and the Union Chain Bridge, the world's oldest suspension bridge still carrying road traffic.
Footnote
An important presentation copy, given to Cromwell Mortimer (1702-1752), physician and secretary of the Royal Society, by French astronomer Louis Godin (1704-1760), who was himself elected a member of the Royal Society in 1735, inscribed ‘To Learned Dr Cromwel [sic] Mortimer, Fellow of the College of the Physicians of London and Secretary of the Royal Society, By his most obliged and most obedient servant, Lud. Godin R. S. A. Par. Socis’ on the initial blank of the first volume.