Androuet Du Cerceau, Jacques, The Elder

ANDROUET DU CERCEAU, Jacques, the elder (c. 1520-1586). [Petites Grotesques] De eo picturae genere quod (Grottesche) vocant Itali. Orléans: [the artist], 1550.
Half-sheet 4 o (201 x 140mm). Collation: 1 1 2 2 1 4 3-4 1 2 . 50 leaves. 50 ETCHINGS (c. 115 x 80mm each) impressed in pairs on one side of the half-sheets. FULL MARGINS. 20 t h -century blue roan, cover edges gilt, (joints and bands rubbed).
Provenance: Antoine Renichon (16 t h - or 17 t h -century signature and initials on 12/6v) -- Monsieur Jilot, according to an 18 t h -century inscription on 1/1r by -- Antoine Crepet the younger, "arbitien" (i.e. speaker of franco-provençal) -- Acquired from William H. Schab 1959.
COMPLETE COPY IN ORIGINAL CONDITION OF THE FIRST EDITION of Androuet Du Cerceau's famous suite of grotesque wall panels, Renaissance ornament combining animal and human figures, mythological motifs, fruit, flowers, baskets, vases, branches, proscenia, curtains, baldaquins, plinths, terminals, friezes, etc. The artist specialized in inventing ornament for decorators, furniture makers, goldsmiths and jewelers.
First-edition sets in any condition are EXTREMELY RARE. The Vershbow set is in exceptional state of preservation, which shows important evidence that pairs of etchings were printed on half-sheets in order to be quired and bound. The prints of other surviving copies are invariably cut down and usually mounted in later albums. Berlin Katalog 285; Geymüller p. 319; Guilmard p. 10.