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A pair of large festival prints of events held on the River Ill in Strasbourg.
Représentation de l’Edifice de l’Hôtel de Ville de Strasbourg..et des Fêtes de Réjouissances..le 5 octobre, 1744, jour de l’Arrivée de Sa Majesté Louis XV, and Représentation des Edifices et Décorations élevés, et du Feu d’Artifice executé le 5 octobre 1744…en présence de Sa Majesté Louis XV…sur la Rivière d’Ill.
Designed by J.M. Weis. Very good impressions with wide margins, each with a vertical centre crease and remains of an old guard. Some pale discolouration along the guard as well as in the margins, generally in remarkably good condition for such large sheets.
These spectacular engravings are remarkable not only for the lavish events they depict, but also for their size and for the fact that, unlike J.F. Blondel’s famous prints for the 1739 marriage of Don Felipe of Spain to which Salatino compares them, they are printed from single large copper plates and single sheets of paper. To judge by the inscriptions they were a collaboration between J.M. Weis, official engraver to Strasbourg and the designer and director of the project, and J.P. Le Bas, one of France’s most successful engravers.
