Petit Waux-Hall.

£1,500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

A fine print depicting a fashionable group of people gathered in a Parisian pleasure garden. In the foreground two noble-men peer and stare at the elegantly dressed lady who stands at the centre of the image. She is shown in full-length with her head turned in profile to the left. The woman wears an over-dress and a skirt of polonaise panels with deep bands of ruched adornments on the petticoat hem that ends above the ankle. The dress is finished with a low-cut ruched bust, and a pleated collar. Around her neck she wears a string of pearls with a bird ornament attached. The ringlets of her wig are shown under her large hat topped with plumes. She holds a handkerchief in one and with her fan in the other she screens her face from the gazing men. On the right an elderly woman stands in conversation with a gentleman. Further in the background men sit inside a circle of the formal garden’s tauperie. On the left another group of men and women face away in conversation. In France, pleasure gardens were commonly called, in a Gallicism of “Vauxhall”, “Les Wauxhalls”. The French pleasure gardens were inspired by London’s most famous Vauxhall Gardens, established on the South Bank of the Thames in 1661. Vauxhall gardens was an 11 acre site that featured long alleys lined with avenues of trees and lit by lanterns. There was a raised pavilion for an orchestra, a rotunda where paintings were exhibited and walkways lined with booths. The gardens were accessed by boat and were hugely popula

• Year: 1780

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.