The cased set of Description de l’Égypte… sold by Andrew Jones in Los Angeles for $220,000 (£173,230).
A set of the monumental Description de l’Égypte… in its specially made case was sold last month in a US sale.
Bid to $220,000 (£173,230) in a May 18-19 sale held by Andrew Jones (25/18/12% buyer’s premium) of Los Angeles, it was a complete 2nd, or Pancoucke edition (1821-30) of this extraordinary, officially sponsored work, originally commissioned by Napoleon and worked on by a great many scholars and artists over many years. Comprising a dozen double elephant folio plate volumes and 26 smaller text volumes, some with illustrative content, it presented close on 900 engraved plates, all of which bore blind-stamps in one outer corner.