?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 30,000 - $ 50,000
REMBRANDT VAN RIJN Les Cuivres de Rembrandt, Réimpression des Planches Originales.
Complete set of 78 etchings by Rembrandt, one etching by Ferdinand Bol (Bartsch 295) and one etched copy after Rembrandt. Each with wide (full) margins. Published by Alvin Beaumont and Michel Bernard, Paris, with the original title page and introduction text.
According to Usticke, this 1906 set is the final "recueil" printing from Rembrandt's surviving original copper etching plates, which had been assembled together in Paris during the late 1700s. There were at least three sets issued by the Parisian printmaker/publisher Pierre François Basan and his heirs, from around 1790 to 1810, followed by additional sets issued by Auguste Jean (and possibly his widow) from 1810 into the 1840s.
According to Usticke, after the widow Jean died in 1846, Michel Bernard acquired the collection of copper plates and issued his own "recueils" during the late 19th century, culminating with this set which Bernard published in association with Alvin Beaumont.
These collections are scarce in any issue; we have found fewer than 20 other complete "recueils" at auction in the past 30 years. Bartsch 17, 19-20, 22, 26, 34, 37, 39, 41, 43-47, 49, 53, 55, 57, 63, 64, 68-73, 80, 81, 83, 87, 91, 92, 94, 97, 98, 102, 105, 113, 118, 119, 123-126, 128, 130, 131, 133, 136, 151, 152, 164, 168, 170, 176, 179, 192, 194-196, 200, 205, 208, 270, 272, 273, 275-277, 279, 283, 290, 295, 321, 344, 349, 365 and 368.
