[MUSIC]. LA BORDE (Jean Benjamin de) Choix de chansons mises en musique. A Paris, Chez De Lormel, Imprimeur de l'Académie Royale de Musique, 1773. 4 volumes large in-8°, marbled calf, triple gilt fillet framing the covers, smooth spine decorated, gilt edges (period binding) ENTIRELY ENGRAVED WORK including a title, three frontispieces bearing the tomaisons, a dedication decorated with the arms of Marie Antoinette de Lorraine, archduchess of Austria and dauphin of France, to whom the work is dedicated, and 100 intermediate titles introducing musical scores preceded by engravings by J. M. MOREAU LE JEUNE & LE BARBIER. EXAMPLE WITH A PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR "à la lyre", engraved by MASQUELIER after DENON as a frontispiece and dated 1774. Some foxing on the first pages (portrait, title, dedication and first figure). "This book, one of the most beautiful of the 18th century, is perhaps, with the Tales of La Fontaine, the most pleasant by the grace of the subjects and the variety of the costumes which are represented there. [The first volume] is a small masterpiece of composition, spirit and execution" (Cohen, 534-538).