HUET (Jean-Baptiste). Le trésor des artistes et des amateurs des arts, ou le guide sûr et infaillible des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs, graveurs, [...] des sujets allégoriques ou emblématiques..…

HUET (Jean-Baptiste). The treasure of the artists and the amateurs of arts, or the sure and infallible guide of the painters, sculptors, draughtsmen, engravers, architects, decorators, etc., in the choice of the allegorical or emblematic subjects... In Paris, Testu, Treuttel & Wurtz, Lenormant, Bossange, [1810]. 2 volumes in-8, X-206 + 188 p., pl., contemporary Russian garnet leather, spine with 4 nerves decorated with a gilt roulette, title and tomaison gilt, caissons decorated with small irons, boards framed with a floral roulette between two fillets, all gilt, and a cold roulette, guilloche edges, gilt roulette on the counterplates, gilt edges (very slight rubbing to the spines, minor russeting). Very rare second edition of this collection of allegorical representations for the use of artists, composed and engraved by the painter J.-B. Huet (1745-1811). It seems to be the only edition published in in-8° format, the two other known editions being in 3 volumes in-12 (the original in 1800, entitled "Petit trésor...", by the author and Marcilly, and the 3rd by Costes in 1811). The illustration is entirely engraved hors-texte and offers 384 figures on 192 plates (2 figures per plate), a title-frontispiece, and an allegorical figure entitled "L'iconologie". A very nice copy with all the figures finely colored at the time, and in an elegant contemporary binding. Provenance: Louis Étienne Marie L'Espine Du Puy, knight of Malta, born in 1782 (engraved armorial bookplate).