Antique print I Stefano della Bella I 1650 Frontispiece Divers Exercices de Cavalerie

Stefano della Bella (1610-1664)

Antique title page, etching, Military, Della Bella | Divers Exercices de Cavalerie [1], published ca. 1650, 1 p.

Name: Antique title page, etching, Military, Della Bella | Divers Exercices de Cavalerie [1], published ca. 1650, 1 p.
SKU: PR121181-1
Availability: InStock

Frontispiece to a set; in the arched doorway to a stable, a groom holding the bridle of a horse, in profile facing left. c.1642-1645. Inscribed under the arch: Diverses Exercices de Cavalerie Dedié A Monsieur Destissac Enfant d’honneur du Roy. The coat of arms of Destissac on the coat of the horse.

Lettered below: Faict Par S.D. Bella. Israel excudit cum Priuilegio Regis.

According to the British Museum note, the set of nineteen prints of equestrian activities, dated c.1642 by De Vesme but 1645 by Massar who believes that the series may have been made to honour the occasion of the young King Louis XIV beginning riding, one of the activities in which the ‘enfants d’honneur’ would have accompanied him. She also bases her dating on two BM drawings (1895,0617.389 and 1895,0617.394) of riders from the Arnolfini Academy, which took part in the Paris entry of the Polish Ambassador in 1645. The second state differs from the first only in that De Vesme 243 does not have “Israel excudit” but “A Paris Chez Israel, rue de l’Arbre sec, au logis de Mons || le Mercier Orfeure de la Reyne pres la croix du tiroir”.

The state we offer is as of yet undocumented as on the bottom right of the plate a number is inserted: 1.

Other plates from the set (12 in total) in our stock are printed on hand laid paper, with a watermark visible only on plate 11. This watermark, IHS with a cross atop the H and with a chain right in the middle. It may identify Italian paper used in the mid-17th century for an impression of Claude Lorrain’s print as reported in Making Watermarks Meaningful: Significant Details in Recording and Identifying Watermarks
by Kitty Nicholson [https://cool.culturalheritage.org/coolaic/sg/bpg/annual/v01/bp01-18.html].

[NL] Titelprent met een stalknecht en paard in een doorgang. Een stalknecht en paard in een doorgang. Op de muur de titel. Tekst in ondermarge.

SKU: PR121181-1

Etching on laid paper, with margins; total: 135 x 100 mm; state III/3?; traces of previous mountings on verso, otherwise in great condition; de Vesme Massar 227; undocumented state.

€ 121,00 (€ 100,00 ex. btw)

In stock