Les Baisers, precedes du Mois de Mai, Poeme.

Dorat, Claude Joseph

Eisen, Charles (illus.)

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The Hague: Lambert et Delalain, 1770. Octavo. 119pp. First issue, on large paper, with the title and headings in red. With copper-engraved title vignette, 22 large headpieces and 20 tailpieces after Charles Eisen and two tailpieces after Pierre-Clement Marillier. A large (8 7/8 by 5 5/8 inches) and clean copy with strong impressions of the engravings. Eisen, a master of rococo book illustration, received his earliest training from his father, a Belgian artist, and his works shows the Flemish influence. A notorious libertine, Eisen has become known for his voluptuous depiction of women. The Flemish influence lends his illustrations "the robustness and sensuality which gives them their distinctive mark, (while) the grace, delicacy, and precision with which he realized his conceptions save his work from vulgarity." Bound in full crushed blue morocco, triple gilt filets, spine richly gilt in six compartments by Trautz-Bauzonnet. Inner dentelles richly gilt, bookplate. A fine copy in a morocco-edged slipcase.In Les Baisers, Eisen creates the masterpiece of his career as well as achieving the pinnacle of illustration in small scale. (Cohen-de Ricci 30811; Ray: French 31). (Item ID: 5782)