MOLIÈRE. OEuvres. À Paris, par la Compagnie des libraires as - Lot 14

MOLIÈRE. OEuvres. À Paris, par la Compagnie des libraires associés, 1788-[1789]. 6 volumes in-8, green morocco, smooth spines cloisonné with gilt chains and red headpieces, triple gilt fillets with corner fleurons, decorated edges, inner gilt roulette, gilt edges; spines tarnished and a little rubbed, some traces of moisture in volumes III and IV, some old notes in pencil (period binding). I: (4 of which the 2nd and 4th are blank)-viii-520 [the last miscalculated 20] pp. - II: (4 of which the 2nd and 4th are blank)-576 pp. - III: (4 of which 2nd and 4th blank)-558-(2 blank) pp. - IV: (4 of which 2nd and 4th blank)-560 pp. - V: (4 with 2nd and 4th blank)-776 pp. - VI: (4 with 2nd and 4th blank)-704 pp. - All titles printed in red and black. Edition with comments by the lawyer, writer and royal censor Alexis-Jean Le Bret (1693-1779). It reproduces the edition published in 1773 by the same company. ILLUSTRATION ENGRAVED ON COPPER: out-of-text portrait-frontispiece by Louis-Jacques Cathelin after Pierre Mignard; 33 out-of-text plates after drawings by Jean-Michel Moreau dit MOREAU LE JEUNE by various artists including Jean-Charles Baquoy, Louis-Joseph Masquelier, Jean-Baptiste Blaise Simonet and Moreau le Jeune himself (one of them); 6 different title vignettes. The excellence of Moreau le Jeune's suite of plates, originally published as illustrations for the 1773 edition, lies in the rendering of the characters: although Moreau le Jeune sometimes loses his grace, he manages to offer an enlightening interpretation of each scene (Ray, no. 50, p. 91).