Lot 17
SOLD FOR £12,000 Piranesi, Giovanni Battista
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 5 September 2007 at 12:00 BST
Description
Vasi, candelabra, cippi, sacrophagi, tripodi, lucerne ed ornamenti antichi disegnati ed incisi dal cav. Gio. Batt. Piranesi… [Rome], 1778, large folio, 2 volumes in one, engraved title to volume I on 2 sheets, engraved title to volume 2 on one sheet, 110 etched plates by Piranesi, some with 2 images to a plate, plates 81 x 56.5cm, somewhat dustmarked, some creasing, light damp-staining to the margins of most plates, darker (?oil) stain to margin of a few plates extending into image of a few plates, a few plates with small hole in margin, one with corner torn away, two with split at centre fold, first title with two marginal tears just extending into image, loose in worn half morocco portfolio
Footnote
Note: Piranesi's Vasi, candelabri, cippi, sarcophagi, tripodi, lucerne ed ornamenti antichi was produced during a period when Piranesi was collaborating with the Scottish painter Gavin Hamilton in the restoration and sale of antiquities—many uncovered in the excavations at Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli. Piranesi not only copied newly discovered items but sometimes combined a number of diverse ancient fragments to create a new work. The handsome series of etchings after ancient vases, candelabra, funerary urns, and other recently excavated decorative objects served to advertise wares available in Piranesi's workshop as well as to document rare pieces that were leaving the country, such as the Warwick Vase.
All the plates listed by Focillon in his Essai de catalogue raisonné (1918, p.43-49) are present and correct. Only some of the plates have a number etched on them and Focillon adds to the bibliographical complexity by listing and numbering separately plates which actually appear side by side on a single sheet, and yet giving one catalogue number to two, and sometimes three, entirely different sheets. Apart from the engraved title to volume 1 one plate (Focillon 620), showing the ceiling of Hadrian's villa, is in two sheets. Hind, A.M. Giovanni Battista Piranesi, p.87.