Aux Armes de Blancheton, later in the posession of Archduke Franz Joseph

Limiers, [Henri Philippe]. Annales de la Monarchie Françoise, depuis son établissement jusques à présent [...].

Amsterdam, Honoré & Châtelain, 1724.

Folio (295 x 452 mm). 3 parts in 1 vol. (10), 335 [but: 329], (1) pp. (2), 290, (26) pp. (2), 127, (1) pp. All three title pages printed in red and black. With 3 engraved title vignettes, 1 engr. frontispiece (B. Picart inc. & sculp.), 7 large, folding engr. genealogical tables, and 63 page-sized engravings in the text in part 3. Contemporary calf with giltstamped red label to elaborately gilt spine and giltstamped arms on the covers. All edges in faded red. Marbled endpapers.

 2,500.00

First edition of this work important for French historiography after the death of Louis XIV. The first part provides an overview of the history of the French monarchy, the second part treats the genealogy of the French ruling houses. Part three contains various coins and medals of the monarchs. The genealogical plates show a large number of arms and maps; one of them contains four engraved views of Paris. The 63 text engravings (each bordered by ten medaillons) depict a total of 242 views of French castles and cities.

Some brownstaining; occasionally slightly waterstained. Front hinge and defect to upper spine-end professionally restored. From the library of Pierre-Philibert de Blancheton, seigneur de Chevry, de Vaux, de Meursault et des Auxey (1697-1756), with his gilt-stamped arms on both covers (illustrated in Olivier pl. 1919, fer no. 2: "lion d'or, tenant entre ses pattes un épi de blé"). Blancheton entered the Metz parliament in 1724 and later was made royal counselor. "Il mourut sans enfants [...], laissant une très importante bibliothèque" (Olivier). Later in the possession of Archduke Franz Joseph (1905-75) with his stamp on the front pastedown. Franz Joseph, son of Leopold Salvator of Austria and Tuscany, had emigrated to Spain with his family in 1918. During WWII, he lived in the United States as an interior architect. He returned to Austria in 1955, where he was active as an agronomist and forester (cf. Hamann, Habsburger, 145). The present volume remained in the possession of the Habsburg family and was acquired directly from Patricia Federica Maria Valeria Nella von Habsburg-Lothringen.

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