Lot 159: ZOMPINI, Gaetano Gherardo (1700-1778, artist) and Dottore QUESTINI (author). Le Arti che vanno per via nella Citt… di Venezia. Aggiuntavi una memoria di detto autore. Venice: [John Strange], 1785.

Broadsheet 2o (350 x 254mm). Engraved additional title, title and index leaf. 60 etched plates by and after Zompini with 3-line descriptive verses below, letterpress slips bearing English text pasted on below plates. (Variable spotting, some plates with marginal staining, plate 58 torn and repaired, lacking letterpress 'memoria' leaf.) Modern half mottled calf over marbled-paper covered boards, gilt morocco lettering-piece on spine (board edges lightly rubbed). Provenance : C. Wilkinson (18th-century inscription and monogram on border of title). ZOMPINI'S CELEBRATED ETCHINGS OF VENETIAN TRADESMEN, 'incise con gran maestria e facilit… pittoresca' (Cicognara). The artist's preparatory drawings for this work were probably begun in 1750, and depict the livelihoods of pedlars, beggars, and other poor inhabitants of the city. The resulting suite of etchings enjoyed great popularity, with the first edition of 1753 followed by issues published in Venice in 1785 and 1789, and London in 1803. The present edition was published by John Strange (1732-1799), an antiquarian and author, who held the position of British Resident in Venice from 1773 to 1788. Lipperheide Jba 24 (ascribing the verses below the plates to Questini). Cf. Cicognara 1829 (1789 edition); Colas 3120 (1753 edition, noting that in some copies the English translation is on pasted-on slips).