232 - LE LORRAIN (Claude). *Liber veritatis*; or a Collection of Prints, after the original Designs; in the Collection of His Grace the Duke of Devonshire. London, Boydell and Co, W. Bulmer and Co, n.d. [c. 1820]. 3 folio volumes, red half-maroquin with corners edged with a double gold fillet, richly decorated spine, black title labels and tan volume numbers, gilt edges (mid-19th-century English binding).

LE LORRAIN (Claude). *Liber veritatis*; or a Collection of Prints, after the original Designs; in the Collection of His Grace the Duke of Devonshire. London, Boydell and Co, W. Bulmer and Co, n.d. [c. 1820]. 3 folio volumes, red half-maroquin with corners edged with a double gold fillet, richly decorated spine, black title labels and tan volume numbers, gilt edges (mid-19th-century English binding). Second edition of this superb collection of 300 landscape plates engraved by Richard Earlom in a wash-like style and printed in bistre based on drawings by the painter Claude Gellée, known as Le Lorrain (1600–1682). In addition, there are 3 portraits (of the artist Le Lorrain, the engraver Richard Earlom, and the publisher John Boydell) engraved by Josiah Boydell, Lipton, and B. Smith. The work, originally published between 1777 and 1817, can be considered the first catalog raisonné of the work of one of the great masters of classical landscape painting. (Brunet, vol. III, col. 1169; Cohen, col. 242.) A magnificent copy, in a lovely English binding with a richly decorated spine. In Volume II, a handwritten note on an endpaper: “I ask Madame Laigniel to keep these three volumes at her home in case of a claim by the Crown Prince of England for fifty million, or one hundred and fifty million.” From her godmother, Fanny Driou, formerly an embroidery dealer, to Phanie Diderot, in Paris, 7 rue d’Uzès. On behalf of Monsieur Vivier, Baron des Landes; and a note at the top: “or against billions if one refuses (!?)”. An amusing handwritten note in the same hand regarding the appearance of the engraver and the English publisher beneath the corresponding portraits. Small foxing spots in the margins of a few plates; water stain in the margin of the artist’s portrait; and a small, faint water stain on the edges of plates nos. 167, 196, 197, 198, and 200 in Volume II. Slight scuffing on the binding Expert: Mr. Dominique Courvoisier