Lot 329: ALBERTOLLI, Giocondo (1742-1839). Ornamenti Diversi. Inventati, disegnati ed eseguiti da ... Albertolli [ -- Alcune decorazioni di nobili sale ed altri ornamenti -- Miscellanea per i giovani studiosi del disegno ]. Milan: G. Albertolli,

ALBERTOLLI, Giocondo (1742-1839). Ornamenti Diversi. Inventati, disegnati ed eseguiti da ... Albertolli [ -- Alcune decorazioni di nobili sale ed altri ornamenti -- Miscellanea per i giovani studiosi del disegno ]. Milan: G. Albertolli, [1782]-1787-1796 [but probably c. 1796, vide infra ]. 3 parts (of 4) in one volume, broadsheets (627 x 483mm). Engraved titles and dedications to each part, and 69 engraved plates on 65 sheets by Giacome Mercoli and C.A. Aspari [pt i], G. Mercoli and Andrea de Bernardis [pt ii] and G. and Michaelangelo Mercoli, Giuseppe Longhi, Girolamo Mantelli, and Raffaello Albertolli [pt iii], after Giocondo Albertolli [pts i-ii] and G. and R. Albertolli, 5 in pt iii aquatints printed in sepia. Letterpress address to the reader leaf in pt ii. EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED with a hand-coloured engraved plate by J. Hill after William Fowler 'Tria pavimenta tessellate Romani operas ... quae in agro Wintertoniae ... anno MDCCXLVII primum reperiebantur ... Drawn by W. Fowler, Winterton 1796' [s.l.: s.n., s.a.] bound in as a frontispiece. (Scattered light spotting and occasional, mainly marginal, light marking, Fowler plate somewhat browned.) Contemporary English half calf over marbled boards, spine gilt in compartments and lettered in one (extremities somewhat rubbed and scuffed, offsetting on boards from calf below). THE FIRST THREE PARTS OF THIS CELEBRATED AND INFLUENTIAL COLLECTION OF ORNAMENT--'OUVRAGE BIEN EXéCUTé' (Brunet)--by the Italian architect, decorative artist, and teacher Albertolli. This volume contains the first three of his published works on ornament: Ornamenti Diversi includes several of his stucco ceilings for the Palazzo Reale, Milan and the Villa Casnedi, Milan; Alcune decorazioni depicts interior decorations such as cornices, fireplaces, and girandoles, together with architectural details from the antique; Miscellanea contains studies of eagles, details of floral and foliate decoration, and copies of ornamentation in Florence and Sienna cathedrals. Together, these three publications enjoyed great success, as Cicognara states: 'Ma è da notarsi l'immensa diversità delle stampe di questa prima parte, quando trovansi riunite alla seconda, o alla terza, essendo logoratissime pel gran succcesso e smercio che ebbero' (393). The first issue of the first part appears to have been printed on whiter, smaller paper than that of the other parts, and this copy (in which the three parts are printed on similar thick-paper stock thoughout, watermarked 'VM'), presumably contains a later issue of the first and second parts (pt ii contains a plate XXIII, dated '1788'). Nine years after the publication of the third part, Albertolli published a fourth and final part, Corso elementare di ornamenti architettonici (Milan: 1805); its absence from this volume suggests that this set was bound up shortly after the publication of the final part in 1796. RARE THUS; no copy of the first three parts together is recorded at auction by ABPC since 1975. Berlin Kat. 595 (pts i-ii only, first issue of pt ii) and 596 (pts i-iii, later issue of pt ii, lacking dedications); Brunet, I, col. 136; Cicognara 390-392; RIBA 64, 61, and 63 (presumed later issues of pts i-ii bound with pt iii).

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