[EX-LIBRIS CHARLES RICHARD TRONCHIN, GENEVE] [SAINT-LAMBERT - Lot 46

[EX-LIBRIS CHARLES RICHARD TRONCHIN, GENEVE] [SAINT-LAMBERT Jean-François de], GRAVELOT, LE PRINCE (ill.) Les Saisons, Poëme. 1769 Amsterdam, s. n., 1769. In-8°, contemporary speckled calf, minor wear. Complete with 5 plates hors texte, including the frontispiece dated 1768, drawn by J. B. Le Prince and H. Gravelot and copper-engraved by de Launay, Prévost, Rousseau, Saint-Aubin and Watelet. Four finely drawn and etched head vignettes by Choffard (1769). Armorial bookplate H. Tronchin with his motto Sursum corda on a 19th-century vignette on the first flyleaf. Handwritten bookplate of Charles Richard Tronchin on the title. Original edition and first printing of the Seasons engravings by Jean-François (sometimes called Charles-François) de Saint-Lambert (1716-1803), born in Nancy. He frequented the salons of Mesdames Geoffrin, du Deffant, Houdetot, du Châtelet, de Lespinasse and the philosophers, and wrote articles for the Encyclopédie. The poem Les Saisons is followed by Sarah Th., a short story translated from English, philosophical tales (the Abenaki, Sara and Ziméo), Pièces fugitives and Fables orientales. One of the tales that follows Les Saisons, entitled "Ziméo, par George Filmer, né primitif", features the "negro-maroons" of Jamaica, testifying to the evolution of ideas on slavery. Cohen-Ricci, 926. copy having belonged to Charles Richard Tronchin (1763-1835), born in Geneva, member of the Representative Council), State Councillor (1815-1821). This copy later passed into the library of Armand-Henri-Louis Tronchin (1794-1865), with his coat of arms, who married Emma-Almeria Calandrini in 1823. This volume was part of the prestigious Tronchin family library in Bessinge, in the canton of Geneva.