c1766 – Fourteen ORIGINAL BOOK ENGRAVINGS

c1766 – 14 ORIGINAL ENGRAVINGS – MOST DESIGNED BY GUISEPPE ZOCCHI

An interesting assortment of engravings, ten of which come from the Four Volume Set – Serie di ritratti d’uomini illustri toscani con gli elogj storici dei medesimi consacrata a Sua Altezza Reale il Serenissimo Pietro Leopoldo published between 1766 to 1773. Italian title translates to – “Series of portraits of illustrious Tuscan men with historical praise of the same consecrated to His Royal Highness the Most Serene Pietro Leopoldo”

These clipped engravings from the book(s) were stored with a collection of Grolier Club ephemera, thus probably a “well-healed” collection – hopefully not the person who clipped these out. Using the initials engraved on the head-pieces, and the wording on the back side of those pieces, I was able to narrow down the publication and learn that both the Allegorical head-pieces and the Decorative Initials come from this set published in Florence. Engraved by Francesco Allegrini (initials also on the head-pieces) and published by Guiseppe Allegrini. Included in the lot are:

1 – Three Allegorical head-pieces – these were clipped from the top of the pages, and also trimmed horizontally since I learned the pages are wider (with wide margins) at the top. You can see this from the back side image – these three are trimmed to about 8 7/8 inches wide to about 3 3/8 inches and the larger about 4 inches.

2 – Seven Leading Decorative Initials from the same publication, including: C – D – F (2 copies from different pages) – L – P – V — etching image sizes about 2 inches by 2 1/4 inches each

3 – Four pieces that I could not identify as to engraver or publication – including Decorative Initial I; and, three decorative fillers or tail-pieces.

A nice collection to have for duplication and use in your own publication.