[7 Volumi] - Gioielli tradizionali Greci, Storia della Danza, Monografie d’arte antica - 1899-2000

History of dance, traditional Greek jewelry, and great monographs on ancient art

Elegant set of illustrated volumes of high antiquarian and collectible interest, focused on the history of dance, on traditional Greek jewelry, and on the great artistic civilizations of the Mediterranean and the Near East.

In the foreground – Angelos Delivorrias, Greek Traditional Jewelry, Benaki Museum / “Melissa” Publishing House
Reference work, richly illustrated in color and black and white, dedicated entirely to traditional Greek jewelry. Documents with extraordinary iconographic quality gold, silver, and precious stone adornments (necklaces, earrings, fibulae, diadems, breastplates) coming from the Benaki Museum collections and from various areas of Greece (Attica, Euboea, Epirus, Ionian islands, Cyprus, etc.). Extensive photographic and textual sections illustrate goldsmithing techniques (filigree, enamel, lost-wax casting), decorative motifs, and ethnographic contexts, with images of women in traditional dress and pieces of exceptional refinement.

A volume of great charm and rarity on the Italian market, of interest both for antique and traditional jewelry collectors and for scholars of Greek material culture.

2- Gaston Vuillier (Gaston Vuillier), La Danza, Milan, Tipografia del Corriere della Sera, 1899
Original Italian edition out of commerce, gift reserved for subscribers of the Corriere della Sera. Folio volume (about 30 × 20 cm when bound), pp. XII, 364. Hardcover in brown cloth with titles and gold ornaments on the front and spine. Numerous illustrations in the text (wood engravings, lithographs, reproductions of engravings and paintings) and some plates hors texte.
Italian translation from the French of the monumental La Danse (1898), enriched with an original chapter on Italian choreography. Complete history of dance from antiquity to the nineteenth century: sacred and ritual dances (Egypt, Greece, Jews, Middle Ages), court dances and great choreographies (Louis XIV and Louis XV), rural and popular dances, waltz and polka, public dances, theatrical dance. Ending with a chapter dedicated to Milanese theater, Viganò, Manzotti, Rota, Marenco and the Italian ballet school.
A work of great typographical and iconographic value, today rather rare on the market because it was never sold openly: it was issued exclusively as a prize to subscribers. It constitutes one of the most beautiful and well-documented histories of dance published in Italy at the end of the nineteenth century, with an apparatus of notable quality and an Italian chapter absent in the French edition. Complete copy, in good condition (slightly yellowed paper, solid binding), with a manuscript dedication dated October 15, 1955.

3- La Grande Storia dell’Arte (series of volumes dedicated to classical and Oriental antiquity)
Five illustrated large-format monographs, published by De Agostini / Electa or similar prestigious series:
13 Egyptian Art
14 Art of the Near East
15 Greek Art
16 Etruscan Art
17 Roman Art
Each volume offers a wide selection of works (statues, reliefs, paintings, architectures, goldsmithing) with high-quality color and black-and-white photographs, critical notes, and captions. Particularly rich are the volumes on Greek art (Moscoforo, Cavaliere Rampin, archaic and classical sculpture) and on Near Eastern art (paleobabylonian figurines, votive bronzes). A coherent series of reliable interest for art history libraries and collectors of illustrated books of the period.

The overall collection combines a rare and out-of-commerce work on the history of dance (with an unpublished Italian chapter), a highly appealing specialist volume on traditional Greek jewelry (the strong point of the lot), and five reference monographs on ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern art. High-quality iconographic material, in generally good condition, suitable for both collectors of illustrated books and enthusiasts of art history, ethnography, and goldsmithing.