L'Amour victorieux ou Les Conquêtes de Cypris. Almanach chantant

Paris: chez la V[euv]e Depoilly, et chez Jubert, 1784. 24mo (binding size 98 x 58 mm). Etched and engraved title, 24 pages (a single 12-leaf quire A), [16]-page calendar for 1785 bound in middle of quire, 12 etched and engraved “plates” (printed on 6 conjugate bifolia), rule page borders throughout (one or two borders shaved). A fine copy, in a contemporary case binding of embroidered ivory faille silk over binders’ boards, both covers with a central wheat sheaf of couched purl and vermeil sequins in a pot of green threads, symmetrical purl ribbons and sprays above and below, the ground with small green flowers and sequin accents, double outer border of sequins and intertwining metallic thread, spine with saltire design of metallic thread and sequins, salmon watered silk doublures with hammered vermeil ribbon borders, framing a mirror on the upper cover, and on the lower cover a pocket, free endpapers of pink on gold brocade paper (printed on one side only), gilt edges. (Outer corner of front cover very slightly stained and fraying, a ribbon border inside lower cover detaching, the mirror intact but its tin[?] backing turned to powder and shedding slightly through the spine.) ***

A delightful almanac in a fetching embroidered binding which expresses the golden sun of the harvest, abundance and joy. In pictures and verse this almanach galant relates love’s approaches, evasions and eventual conquest using an extended military metaphor. Hence captions like “the diligent vigil, the gracious combat, marauding cupids, a lucky rally, the double attack, the capitulation,” etc., grace the hardly warlike images. The women, in petticoats, ribbons, and flowery hats, wear the latest fashions.

In an unusual modern touch, the image of the etched title, showing a couple in a boat with a fortress and galleon in the background, continues behind the title lettering. The engraved illustrations of courting and sometimes (modestly) contorting couples are in dark vivid impressions. In this copy (unlike the Grand-Carteret copy) the sixth and seventh plates were printed on the same sheet in the wrong order, and thus the captions are mismatched.

The embroidered cover of the binding was applied slightly awry on the lower cover.

OCLC lists the BnF copy only. Cf. Savigny de Moncorps, Almanachs illustrés du XVIIIe siècle (1909), no. 55 (p. 104); Meunié, Bibliographie de quelques almanachs illustrés des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles (1906); Grand-Carteret 1143: the same almanac (with full-page illustration) but bearing the title of the 1793 Goguettes Parisiennes (his no. 1192).