Lot 261: OPIZ, Georg Emanuel (1775-1841) and KLEIST, Ludwig von. [Tableaux des armée

OPIZ, Georg Emanuel (1775-1841) and KLEIST, Ludwig von. [Tableaux des armées de l’Europe. Dresden: Ludwig von Kleist, c.1840-c.1845.] A rare suite of oversize and very fnely coloured military plates, including an original watercolour drawing. This suite is not in Colas or Lipperheide, nor do we fnd it in any institutional collections apart from the BnF (with 23 plates) and the Royal Library, Stockholm (9 plates). The images comprise tableaux of the Imperial Russian Army (two plates), the French Army (two plates, Cavalry and Infantry), the British Army plate 1 (cf. National Army Museum Cat. 2473), the Royal Danish Army, the Swedish Army, the Austrian Army (two plates), the Prussian Army (two plates, Cavalry and Infantry), the Saxon Army (two plates), the Royal Army of Hanover, the Royal Army of Bavaria, the Royal Army of Würtemberg, and the armies of the Grand Duke of Hesse. This handsome collection of engravings is enhanced with the addition of an extraordinarily detailed watercolour drawing attributed to Georg Opiz, a Czech-born German painter who taught at the Leipzig Academy of Arts. Broadsheet, oblong folio (642 x 765mm). Suite of 17 engraved plates (approx. 510 x 710mm maximum image size) of the armies of Europe, by Hilscher, Bommer, Opiz and Wunerlich chiefy after Opiz (also spelled Opitz), fnely hand-coloured, captions in French and German, most with dedications in French, ruled in black, light and darkgrey wash borders, two plates dated 1840-41, paper watermarked 1828-45 (small mark in sky of pl. 2, short edge tear to pl. 6). With an original graphite, watercolour and gouache drawing (533 x 708mm) on paper, in preparation for the frst Saxon Army plate, “Die Königlich Sächsische Armee nach der Organisation von 1812,” by Georg Opiz and initialed by Kleist (“LvK.”), with German caption in manuscript and tipped to paper with gray wash borders and bound in. The Saxon Army was based in Dresden, the place of publication, and a view of that city appears in the background. 19th century purple halfmorocco, spine gilt with an unidentifed royal cipher (some fading, wear to extremities). Provenance: Christie’s, 26 October 1988, lot 56.