PARTIAL SUITE OF ELEVEN PLATES. THE ADVENTURES OF DON QUIXOT - Lot 128

PARTIAL SUITE OF ELEVEN PLATES. THE ADVENTURES OF DON QUIXOTE. [Paris, [J. B. H. Bonnart, then his widow], [1726?] They measure approximately 70 cm x 50 cm at the bowl. This extraordinarily rare suite of eleven engravings (out of 12 or 20?) imitated by Coypel is not mentioned anywhere. The first four plates, which are not numbered, are signed J. B. H. Bonnard, rue St Jacques au Coq; they pre-date 1726. The next seven are numbered and signed by the widow J. B. H. Bonnart at the same address. Boards 11 and 12 also bear the address in Spanish: En Paris en casa de la vda Bonnart en la calle San Jago al Gallo. They must have been printed after 1726. The most famous scenes are always depicted. These are mainly plates from books IV, VI, VII and VIII of the second part. The Parisian engraver Jean-Baptiste-Henri Bonnart, who began producing and publishing this suite, was succeeded by his widow after his death on February 22, 1726 (he was born in 1678). This suite does not appear in any classic bibliography, neither in Imagenes de un Libro (2003), nor in Quijote biografia de un libro (2005). Nor have we found them in the Cabinet des Estampes in Paris. It seems that the only plates reported are in London at the British Museum (also an incomplete suite). They were published separately, which explains why it is difficult to bring them all together.