BERQUEN (Robert de).

Les Merveilles des Indes orientales et occidentales, ou Nouveau traitté des pierres precieuses et perles, contenant leur vraye nature, dureté, couleurs et vertus. Paris, Christophe Lambin for the author, 1661. In-4, soft vellum (Binding of the time). A rare first edition of this important treatise on gems and precious metals. It is dedicated to the Grande Mademoiselle, as is the second edition, published in 1669. Robert de Berquen, a Parisian jeweller and goldsmith, offers in this work a study on the nature, colours, virtues and prices of gems, pearls and precious metals. After a first chapter devoted to their nature and origin, the author devotes fourteen chapters to the main precious, fine and organic stones - diamond, sapphire, topaz, ruby, emerald, amethyst, aquamarine, hyacinth, opal, chrysolite, iris, vermeil, carbuncle or garnet, carnelian, turquoise, agate, onyx, sardony, chalcedony, jasper, lapis, crystal, pearl, coral, amber - and the sixteenth chapter to gold and silver. The introductory pieces contain a Sonnet to the author's goldsmiths, repeated on p. 100, and a dizain signed with the initials P. D. R. Finally, the last 12 pages contain a Table for knowing in what capacity goldsmiths work gold (expressed in carats) and fine silver (in deniers and grains), in Paris, but also in the main cities of Europe and in Turkey, followed by Verses taken from Ronsard in praise of gold, and an interesting Avis aux apprentis orfèvres. The portrait of the Grande Mademoiselle bound in the copy is not the one of the edition, engraved by Pierre Daret for the publisher Louis Boissevin, but the one of the second edition, executed with a burin by Nicolas de Larmessin in 1664 with the excudit of Pierre Bertrand. Some foxing. An illegible stamp is repeated on the title, the portrait and p. 101. Sinkankas, n°592 ("very early, and important treatise on gemstones, gold and silver").