= Sold as a collection of plates. Price € 285 for 19 plates; or € 20 a piece (please enquire). The plates all are executed with the episode or portrait in the upper half of the plate, while the lower half consists of a textual explanation.Franklin, Catalogue of Early Colour Printing, p. 53: "This extraordinary work of colour printing, issued in Paris by Blin, included 192 aquatint plates and was published in 48 parts. It carried out a consistent scheme of oval portraiture with engraved description and arms below, followed by a notable episode from the life of that hero or heroine of France, and two columns of the half-page in engraved italic to describe the historical event. Thus it was a book of aquatint and engraving, with no type setting. Sergent, responsible for most of the work, had an active life - art, politics, exile, romantic suffering and marriage. He lived to be ninety-six, and in old age drew portraits of his wife to whom he had taught engraving. She helped him with a few plates in this work. It is, as colour-printing, an harmonious and excellent achievement. These were early days for colour in aquatint. England had not begun to attempt colour printing of this sort… [The work] showed absolute control and sophistication, using colour over colour in the manner of Debucourt, following Le Blon, and little or no hand-colouring. He began with a black plate, and assembled the colours upon it. The historical subjects tend to be militsry, but include such philosophical scenes as Fontenelle beside his telescope viewing the man in the moon, and an allegorical celebration - with the medallions of Franklin, Louis Seize and Washington - of American Independance.". Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book 1700-1914, 86 (130 plates only): "Antoine-Francois Sergent (1751-1847), who had studied engraving with Augustin de Saint-Aubin, began to concentrate his attention on engraving about 1786, with the first plates for this book. He did not allow his ardent and prolonged participation in the Revolution to interrupt the progress of his Portraits des Grands Hommes, although the abject flattery of Louis XVI with which it began came to seem more and more of an anomaly. The work eventually extended to forty-eight parts of four plates each. In his dedication to the King, Pierre Blin, the publisher, promised portraits of "all the heroes of France, with the picture of their most glorious deed."Comprising the following plates: "Chevert inspire l'intrépidité", "Le Chancelier de l'hôpital", "Suite de la bataille d'Ivry", "Montgomery présente à Philippe-Auguste", "Générosité du Cardinal d'Amboise", "Mort de Carcado", "Bataille de Saint-Denis", "Suger est nommé régent de la France", "Victoire remportée sur les Anglois par Louis VIII à la Roche-aux-Moines", "Bathilde rachète les esclaves et réprime la vente des enfants", "Terres de cambrai respectées par les Anglois", "Courage de Pepin", "Attaque des Retranchemens établis devant Denain", "Bossuet consolant les villageois de son diocèse", "Brunehaut secourt loup, Duc de Champagne", "Bertrude obtient de clotaire la grace de plusieurs conspirateurs", "Combat singulier de Barbazan", "Attaque de Boulogne-sur-Mer", "Continence de Bayard".