[Rarebooks] FS: Fantastic 1719 Collection of Inventions & Ivories

[Joslin Hall Rare Books, ABAA]

Grollier de Serviere, Gaspard.  "RECUEIL d'OUVRAGES CURIEUX DE
MATHEMATIQUE ET DE MECHANIQUE, ou Description du Cabinet de Monsieur
Grollier de Serviere..."

Lyon; David Forey: 1719.

A descriptive and illustrated catalog of the marvelous and curious
mechanical models and ivory turnings constructed by Nicholas Grollier de
Serviere, a soldier, turner, inventor and the author's father.

Nicolas Grollier de Serviere (1596-1689), a descendant of Jean Grolier,
was indeed a multi-talented man. In his youth he was a soldier and
engineer, serving in Flanders, Germany, Italy and Constantinople. As a
military engineer he specialized in moveable bridges and other such
inventions, and when he retired to his estates in Lyon he constructed
numerous fantastic models, which included floating bridges, water pumps,
fantastical regulator clocks, his famous "reading wheel" machine, artistic
machinery for rendering perspectives, and all sorts of other devices. His
"Cabinet" fast became a wonder to be visited by, among others, Louis XIV,
as well as a host of politicians, scholars, and other inventors and
craftsmen.

In addition to being a skilled model-maker, de Serviere was also amongst
the leading turners of his time, constructing inexplicably intricate and
unlikely forms in ivory on the turning lathe. After his death his son, the
Grand-Prieur de l'Abbaye de Savigny, kept the Cabinet up and published
this volume dedicated to illustrating and describing its objects. Amongst
those who visited and marveled was the young Monk Charles Plumier, who
wrote the first book on the subject of turning, "L'Art du Tourner", in
1701.

The plates in this book begin with examples of de Serviere's intricate
workmanship on the lathe, starting with a plate of very delicate and
intricately carved ivories, followed by "pieces excentriques", a series of
Escher-esque carved balls within balls and sharp, pointy things sticking
out of carved balls, followed by more spheres within spheres, and then
some marvelously turned and carved "pieces hors du rond", wooden
tower-like pieces of great ingenuity and delicacy; these are followed by a
plate of carved rosettes.

But this is more than a book of lathe-work (interesting as that may be).
The second section illustrates a series of ingenious clockworks invented
by de Serviere, many with an elaborate series of rails winding down the
frame; there are also clocks with carved serpents, an hourglass, and one
with Atlas holding up the Earth. The third section features elaborate
machinery invented or envisioned by de Serviere, such as devices for
raising water from streams, watermills, water wheels, and other water
related apparatus, including several paddle-wheeled boats; there follows a
group of bridges, including pontoon bridges and other sectional works;
there are also gates and portable ladders for military use.

Interestingly, in retirement Grollier de Serviere did not limit his
tinkering to miniatures- he constructed a full-sized pile-driver in his
gardens, powered by a water wheel held steady by two boats. The book ends
with some ingenious plans for furniture, including the reading "wheel,
where the sitter sits in front of a ferris wheel device of shelves, on
each of which is an open book; a wheeled chair a portable screen device
for accurately sketching buildings, and something having to do with lamps
which looks fairly lethal.

As a collection of designs and inventions, the Cabinet of Nicholas
Grollier de Serviere is as awe-inspiring and fanstastic today as it was in
1719, and it remains an important record of the work of one of the 17th
century's most accomplished turners. This book was reissued in 1733 and
1751.

Hardcover. 7.5"x10", (28) + 101 + (8) pages, plus 85 copperplate
engravings (numbered 1-88 nos. 39, 48 and 76 were never issued); with
several woodcut head and tailpieces and decorative vignettes in the text;
title page printed in red and black. Bound in old full calf with
appropriate wear, with a new spine label; hinges tight and apart from some
minor soiling and several minor marginal dampstains, a very nice, wide
margined and clean copy.  [20741]  $3,000.00

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