Recueil De Décorations Intérieures, Comprenant Tout Ce Qui A Rapport A L'Ameublement, Comme Vases, Trépieds, Candélabres, Cassolettes, Lustres, Girandoles, Lamps, Chandéliers, Cheminées, Feux, Poêles, Pendules, Tables, Secrétaires, Lits, Canapés, Fauteuils, Chaises, Tabourets, Miroirs, Écrans, Etc. Etc. Etc. Composé Par C. Percier Et P.F.L. Fontaine, Exécuté Sur Leurs Dessins.
[Half-title, t.p.] - Discours Préliminaire - [Plates] - Table Explicative Des Sujets Qui Composent Ce Recueil.
Responsibility Note
All plates are signed as 'par' Percier and Fontaine; none is signed by an engraver.
The headpiece of the 'Discours' is signed as by Percier and Fontaine and engraved by Lacour.
References
Royal Institute of British Architects, Early printed books, 3 (1999), no. 2491 [1827 edition], p.1424-5; National Gallery (Washington), Mark J. Millard Architectural, 1 (1993), no. 134, p.390-1; Johns Hopkins University, The Fowler Architectural Collection (1961), no. 244, p.201.
On Percier and Fontaine, and on the printer Pierre Didot, see the note on Percier and Fontaine's Choix Des Plus Célèbres Maisons De Plaisance De Rome (1809).
Summary Note
This is the second edition. The work was first published in 1801, as a series of plates with engraved title-plate and no letter-press text.
The plates are all captioned. They show interior decorations and furniture already executed - mostly in and around Paris, but in some cases in Sweden, Russia, Poland, Netherlands or Spain.
In Britain the designs of Percier and Fontaine were among the sources of those of Thomas Hope and Henry Moses. Just as Hope's Household furniture was probably the first work to use the term 'interior decoration', so Percier and Fontaine's Recueil was probably the first to use the French term 'décoration intérieur'.
A third edition appeared in 1827 (a resetting of the same text and reissue of the plates - probably the last edition to use the original coppers).
Reproductions
A facsimile of this edition was published in 1971 by Gregg International. An English-language edition was published in 1991 as Empire stylebook of interior design (London: Constable, and New York: Dover).
Provenance
29 December 1820: 'Resolved that the following works be purchased for the Library, viz. - ... Villas of Rome by Percier & his other works ...' (RA Council Minutes VI, 184-5).
16 February 1821: Richard Baynes' bill of £52 18s. 'for Architectural Books' passed for payment (RA Council Minutes VI, 193).
This title is listed in A Catalogue of the Library in the Royal Academy, London, 1821, p. 16.
Binding Note
20th-century half calf, yellow marbled-papered boards; red morocco spine-label lettered 'Recueil De Décorations Interiéures'.
Interior decoration - Decoration and ornament - Furniture - Houses - Palaces - France - Paris - History - 19th century - Empire - Neoclassical
Designs and plans - Pattern books - France - 19th century
Pictorial works - France - 19th century