This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/17/2022
[ROYAL BINDING]. BAUDET, Étienne (1636-1711). Le Grand Escalier de Versailles (“The Grand Staircase of Versailles”). [Paris: 1674-1688]. This volume being the second part of the fifth volume of Cabinet du Roi. Elephant folio (560 x 801 mm). With etched title and 10 etched plates (3 of which are folding). Bound in contemporary full mottled calf, with the coat of arms of the Duke of Orléans stamped in gilt in center of the boards (binding heavily worn, front board detached, rear board nearly detached, text creased, thumbsoiled, foxed). A collection of beautiful plates, reflecting the glory of Versailles, which no longer exist. “The grand staircase of Versailles led to the apartments of Louis XIV and was intended for envoys from foreign nations going to the audience of the King, hence the name of the Ambassadors' staircase which is commonly attributed to it. The architectural works, on the plans of Le Vau, who died in 1670, were directed, from 1672, by François d'Orbay, but it seems certain that Le Brun, with his talent as an organizer and his sense of design took part in the design of the staircase... The painted decoration of the vault and the walls of the first floor were carried out by Le Brun and his collaborators from 1674 and the whole was finished in 1679... This was the work major of Le Brun before the Grand Gallery, praised by contemporaries and admired throughout Europe; it lasted only seventy years; the staircase was destroyed in 1752, by order of Louis XV”. (Le Brun at Versailles, Louvre Museum, 1985-1986, pp. 24-25, translated from the original French).