Diderot’s Engravings Illustrating the Coining Process

Diderot, Denis, and Jean Le Rond d’Alembert. SUITE OF COPPERPLATE PRINTS DEPICTING THE COINING PROCESS, FROM DIDEROT’S ENCYCLOPÉDIE. Geneva and Neufchatel: Chez Pellet et la Société Typographique, 1779. Plates 1–20, lacking only Plate 7 for completion. 28 by 21 cm, bound together in plain blue covers. Trimmed a bit crookedly, but full images present; marginal repair to final plate. Some spotting; very good. A nearly complete set of the famous series of plates from the quarto edition of Diderot’s magnificent compendium of 18th-century technology, Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts, et des métiers. Important for the light they shed on 18th-century minting techniques. The final three plates depict various coins of the period.