LUCE (Louis). Épreuve du Premier Alphabeth Droit et Penché, ornée de Quadres et de Cartouches.1740

Paris: Gravés par ordre do RoyPour l'Impimerie Royale, par Louis Luce, et fini en 32mo (106 x 65 mm), 8ff. early MS. notes to front fly-leaf, marbled endpapers, full contemporary red morocco, small gilt dot tool to corners of both upper and lower board, smooth spine ruled in gilt a lettered direct, turn-in and board edges tooled in gilt, some minor rubbing otherwise a fine copy, housed in a green quarter morocco slip-case. A fine copy of this rare specimen of microscopic type. This specimen presents Luce's "Perle" type in roman and italic (4 point), the smallest type cut to that date. This small specimen contains 3 pages composed exclusively of ornaments, and each page is printed within rules and vignettes. Louis René Luce (c.1695?–1774) Type designer, punchcutter and engraver at the Imprimerie Royale, from about 1740 until 1770. He was the third royal engraver of this name, preceded by his father-in-law Alexandre, who had succeeded Philippe Grandjean. "One of the greatest achievements of Louis Luce was his cutting the character which he named "La Perle," which was the smallest body that had ever been cut or cast... [he issued this] specimen of his microscopic type, both Roman and italic, which was cut in emulation of the celebrated Sedanoise editions. Although much smaller, it is nevertheless superior."—Bigmore & Wyman. In 1773 all of Luce's work, i.e., 7 typefaces, 8 sets of initial caps, some vignettes, some ornaments, and 15 "poetic" typefaces, were purchased by special command of Louis XV for 100,000 Livres. Provenance: Two bookplates to front endpapers: Ex-libris Le Mis. de Biencourt; "Ex-libris Biencourt-Poncins." Audin, no. 3 ; Birrell and Garnett, p. 16 ; cf. Bigmore and Wyman I, 446. Brunet III, 1204, Graesse IV, 277.