28. Jean Dambrun (1741-after1808)
after Jean-Michel Moreau, le Jeune (1741-1814)

La Partie de Wisch (Whist)

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Dambrun, La Partie de Wisch

La Partie de Wisch (Whist)

Etching and engraving from L’Histoire du Moeurs et du Costume, 1783, 400 x 306 mm., Bocher 1365 iv/vi. Fine impression, with the date but before the number 30, on laid paper with the full plate margin and thread margins outside the platemark; a few minor wrinkles. Moreau le Jeune’s Monument de Costume, his best known work, is a virtual window onto the social and personal life of an aristocratic family of the Ancien Régime and, as such, it is a valuable historical document. But, due to his excellence as a draughtsman and the considerable skill of several different engravers, it is also a collection of major artistic value. Although the plates wore well through different states and editions, impressions before the final states, such as this one, are just a bit better. Whist was a card game originating in England and popular in aristocratic circles in France. It is not known how or why the title got transmogrified to “wisch.”