DRUMMOND DE MELFORT, [TRAITE SUR LA CAVALERIE ATLAS], 1776

DRUMMOND DE MELFORT, [TRAITE SUR LA CAVALERIE ATLAS], 1776
LOUIS-HECTOR DRUMMOND DE MELFORT (FRENCH 1721-1788), MARCHES ET EVOLUTIONS DE CAVALERIE, REPRESENTEES EN XXXII ESTAMPES DEFFINEES & GRAVES PAR LES PLUS HABILES MAITRES, EXECUTEES DANS PLUSIEURS CAMPAGNES, FOUS LES MARECHAUX DE COIGNY, DE SAXEM DE BELLE-ISLE, DE SOUBIFE, DE CONTADES & C. DEVELOPPEES DANS LE TRAITE DE CAVALERIE DE FEU M. LE COMTE DE MELFORT, LIEUTENANT-GENERAL DES ARMEES DU ROI, AUXQUELLES ON A JOINT XXII FIGURES RELATIVES A L A PRATIQUE DE L'EQUITATION [Paris: Guillaume Desprez, 1776], atlas volume only, comprising 32 engraved plates after BLARENBERGHE [probably HENRI-DESIRE VAN BLARENBERGHE (FRENCH 1734-1812)], of which 29 are double spreads, no. 25 a triple-fold panel, nos. 14 and 15 with four gatefold panels. Folio (650 x 525 mm) bound in leather. Text in French. Engravers: Ch. Parrocel, J.P. Lebas, J. Audran, A. Coquart, Borde, Aveline, N. Tardieu, L. Cars, Van Blarenberghe, Delvaux, Guill. Sergent, J.B. Louvion, Viel, Macret, Duphonchel, J.B.C. Chatelain, G.R. de Villain, Menil, Michel, Ingouf Junior, Pureneau, le Roy, Juliette, Elis. Thiebaui, Ch. Beurlier, P.H. Juere, Dupuis, Ingouf l'Aine, Patas, le Vilain, Borgnet, L. Bonvallet, J. Aveline, A. Giraud, Duret.

LITERATURE
Gabriel-Rene Mennessier de La Lance, Essai de bibliographie hippique, donnant la description detaillee des ouvrages publies ou traduits en Latin et en Francais sur le cheval et la cavalerie (Paris: Lucien Dorbon, 1915), vol. I, p. 409
Louis Ph. Sloos, ed., Warfare and the Age of Printing: Catalogue of Early Printed Books from before 1801 in Dutch Military Collections (Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2009), pp. 482-483, no. 06059 (title page illustrated)
Nathalie Lemoine-Bouchard, "L.-N. van Blarenberghe et le Traite sur la cavalerie de Drummond de Melfort", Histoire de l'art no. 45, December 1999, pp. 57-69.

LOT NOTES
Louis-Hector Drummond, Leuitenant-General for the army of Louis XVI, published his illustrated treatise on cavalry maneuvers in 1776 in the hopes of explaining the exceptionally complicated maneuvers more simply and thereby improving the overall efficacity of the French army. The atlas accompanying the text, as described by cavalry general Gabriel-Rene Mennessier de La Lance, contains superb plates [which] represent different instructions for individual cavalrymen... These are not simple plans: each cavalryman, each horse is drawn individually, and the scenes are placed within diverse landscapes [trans.]