A quantity of 102 original copper plate engravings by Bernard Direxit on the subject of ships, shipbuilding and sailing.
Produced between 1780 and 1830.
Bernard Direxit (1734-1794)) was a French engraver. He was most famous for having supplied a significant amount of plates, around 1,800, to the Encyclopédie by Diderot & D’Alembert. He maintained an atelier of engravers in Paris which he directed for many years.
There are three main sizes:
Large of which there are 10 images. All horizontal: Most measure 59 x 32 cms or 12 1/2 x 9 inches. A few are slightly smaller.
Medium of which there are 26 images. All horizontal. Roughly (they vary in size) 42.5 x 30 cms or 16 1/4 x 11 3/4 inches.
Small of which there are 66 images. Vertical and horizontal: Roughly 28 x 20. 5 cms (some are slightly smaller) or 11 x 8 inches.
I have tried in the pictures above to include a good cross section of the engravings. Some - about 26 to 30 - are quite technical having to do, I think, with rigging; so perhaps less interesting from a decorative point of view. I have included one of these as the 9th photograph.
The large and medium sized images are all horizontal. The smaller images are both vertical and horizontal.
Condition: Very Good. All are complete but for some slight loss to the corner of one. Some have had short closed tears neatly repaired from the reverse side. There remain a few closed tears at the edges. Some have faint watermarks at the corners (see the 1st photograph) and the paper may be slightly damaged/weakened at this point. Much of the damage from damp does not affect the engraved part of the image but some engravings are discoloured on the printed part of the paper in consequence. All of the large and medium images are creased such as to make them fit into books. There is some additional surface creasing however. One of the larger images has some faint transfer of the image from one side of the page to another. There are other blemishes across the surface and edges, such as a small hole, brown marks, at one point an inked drawing of a boat; but the engravings are in the main clean.
