CARBURI DE CEFFALONIE Marin Monument élevé à la gloire de Pierre-Le-Grand, ou Relation des travaux et des moyens méchaniques qui ont été employés…

OHR, 2508, fer 8 (citing this copy); Kat. Berlin, no. 1794; Pierre-Charles Levesque, Encyclopédie méthodique. Beaux-Arts, 1788, pp. 262-263; Hoefer, VIII, col. 679; Andrews, The Science and Engineering of Materials, p. 367; not mentioned by Quentin-Bauchart.

This beautiful work recounts the transport of the granite block intended to form the base of the famous equestrian statue of Peter the Great in Saint Petersburg. The statue was commissioned by Catherine II from the French sculptor Étienne Falconet. Its pedestal, a 600-ton rock measuring 11 x 6 x 7 meters in height, came from the Gulf of Finland, in Lakhta near Saint Petersburg. This block of granite, called “Гром-камень” (Thunder Stone), was embedded in marshy ground and had to be extracted using cranes and capstans. It was then hauled to the shore during the winter, on frozen ground, using an ingenious device: a metal sled equipped with copper spheres rolling on movable rails and teams of hundreds of muzhiks pulling cables to the beat of drums. From there, a huge raft attached between two ships transported the rock across the sea to the mouth of the Neva River in St. Petersburg. This statue of Peter the Great, on his monumental rock, still dominates Senate Square in St. Petersburg (renamed “Decembrist Square” after the revolution), facing the Neva River. This pedestal is reputed to be the largest stone ever moved by man.

Marin Carburi (1729-1782), a Greek engineer in the service of Catherine II, traveled to France after this mission and had this beautifully illustrated work printed. He then returned to Célaphonie (then part of Venice) to develop agriculture there, but was assassinated by his workers in 1782.

A prestigious and magnificent copy bound for Queen Marie Antoinette.A magnificent copy with many prestigious provenances.

Provenance : Marie-Antoinette, Quen of France (1755-1793) – comte de La Béraudière (sale 1885) – Jacques Hennessy (sale 3 july 1929, no. 148) – Librairie Pierre Chrétien – Paul-Louis Weiller (sale Paris, 8 april 2011, lot 672) – Alain Moatti (bookplate).