a suite of 6 Russian costume plates depicting various street traders, usually identified by their ‘cries’, plate 1, the title plate, dedicated to Jean Baptiste Siméon Chardin ‘Peintre du Roi’, depicting ‘Le Marchand de Gateau’, plate 2 ‘Le Marchand de Poulets’, plate 3 ‘Marchande d’Oeufs, de Beurre et de Clougwa’ which the two lines below describe as fruit smaller than cherries, highly prized in the North for both their agreeable taste and their health-giving benefits, plate 4 ‘Le Marchand de Limonade’, plate 5 ‘La Marchande de Pain’, and plate 6 ‘La Petite Marchande d’Oeufs d’Octha’. Jean Baptiste Le Prince (1734-1781) produced several such suites of Russian costume plates following the period he spent at the Imperial Palace at the invitation of Catherine the Great, between 1758 and 1763,
6 engravings on thick 18th century laid paper bearing a dovecote watermark, each c.220 x 180 mm. (8 5/8 x 7 1/8 in), occasional faint spotting, mostly marginal, [Hédou 36-41; IFF 55-60],
Provenance: ex-Norman Blackburn Trade and Industry collection,