Fireworks, France, 18th century

'Receül de l'artiffice contenant celle de guere et de joye, appartenant a Mr La Jierofflée, sergent au Corps Royal': collection of watercolour sketches of firework arrangements and other subjects, including ropes, knots and pulleys, apparently drawn by a sergeant in the French royal army, 1766.

1766

1 volume 1 volume: approx. 195 x 145 mm. 21 ff. Late 19th or early 20th-century red buckram binding, with lettering piece on spine labelled 'Artifices 1766'.

Purchased at Glendining's sale, 25 September 1933, part of lot 7 (acc.78773).

The circumstances regarding the creation of this work are unknown. It is quite possibly incomplete, having perhaps lost several leaves before it was (re)bound in the late 19th or early 20th centuries. The current sequence of drawings seems eccentric.