From Angelo Domenico’s (1717?-1802) renowned fencing manual “L’Ecole des Armes” the group of sixteen engravings, each marked with a plate number and now professionally mounted and presented glazed in contemporary black frames, all plates marked with a number and “publish’d according to act of parliament Feb. 1763” by Delin, J. Gwyn, in 1763.
Unknown.The engravings are in very decorative and unrestored condition with none of them being in perfect order, some are lighter than others with some being much more discoloured and as such there is a beautiful monochrome contrast when they are placed on the wall. There is soiling and foxing and losses to many of the engravings but we love the overall feel, please see the photographs for full visual reference. The simple good quality frames are all contemporary and each is glazed.
The plate numbers included in numerical order are follows: 5, 6, 9, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25, 27, 28, 32, 34, 39, 41 and 47 respectively.
During the eighteenth-century, fencing was a popular sport among the English royalty and aristocracy, primarily learned on the Continent until the Italian fencing master Domenico Angelo Malevolti Tremamondo established his fencing school in London. A riding instructor by trade, Angelo was born in Leghorn, Italy in 1716 and briefly trained with the celebrated fencer Monsieur Teillagory in Paris. After arriving in England in 1755, he participated in and won several public fencing matches, quickly earning a reputation that helped him secure high-ranking clients such as the Duke of Devonshire and the Earl of Pembroke. He soon capitalized on his popularity by establishing Angelo’s School of Arms, where he taught horsemanship as well as fencing to an affluent and fashionable clientele. Angelo also continued to teach privately and in 1758, instructed the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York. Over the years, his school became a venerable British institution, which was run by successive generations of the Angelo family until the early twentieth-century.
In 1763, Angelo published L’Ecole d’Armes, a respected fencing handbook comprised of beautifully illustrated plates by renowned English artists like Chamber, Gwyn (As we see here) and Ryland depicting principal fencing positions, and esteemed by many as the ultimate authority on fencing.
Simply stunning as a group as a wall of clinking steel; En Garde!
The engravings are in very decorative and unrestored condition with none of them being in perfect order, some are lighter than others with some being much more discoloured and as such there is a beautiful monochrome contrast when they are placed on the wall. There is soiling and foxing and losses to many of the engravings but we love the overall feel, please see the photographs for full visual reference. The simple good quality frames are all contemporary and each is glazed.
By appointment only.
