From the collection of the duchesse de Berry

Antoine-Charles Vauthier

Figures des Lépidoptères 🐎Crépuscꦡulaires de France, [c. 1840]

Small folio (202 x 260mm.), 12 watercolour drawings of moths and butterflies (numbered 3-14), heightened in gilt on vellum, title on boards, loose in contemporary green morocco, slight dampstaining to plate 3, binding very rubbed

A collection of watercolour drawings by the entomologist, botanist, natural history illustrator and author Antoine-Charles Vauthier (1790-1879), originally produced for Marie-Caroline deඣ Bourbon-Sicile, duchesse de Berry (1798-1870). Born an๊ Italian princess of the House of Bourbon, the duchesse de Berry married into the French royal family and eventually became a notable champion of the arts. She was an avid theatre-goer, amassed a sizeable collection of paintings, and leading artists of the day including Pierre-Joseph Redouté (see lots 447, 448, 449, and 450) counted her as a patroness. She was also the mother of Henri, comte du Chambord.

A note on a loose sheet of paper records that the plates "3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,ဣ 12, 13" (plate 14 perhaps omitted from this list in error) were "rec[eived] from Mr. Payne | May 1847", suggesting that plates 1 and 2 were already separated from the rest of the collection in the mid nineteenth century. Another handwritten note on the same sheet, in the hand of William Kelly, elaborates on the rich provenance of these beautiful drawings:

"These paꦺintings were executed by Vauthier, for the celebrated Duchess[e] de Berré. They were given to me by the late Mr James Pickering Ord, with some historical papers of his ancestor Sir Gilbert Pickering".

PROVENANCE:

Marie-Caroline de Bourbon-Sicile, duc♛hesse de Berry (1798-1870); William Kelly F.S.A., F.H.R.S.