ISIDORE-STANSILAS HELMAN (1743-1806?)A SET OF FIFTEEN COPPER-PLATE ENGRAVINGS AND SUMMARY PLATE AFTER CASTIGLIONE, SICHELBARTH, ATTIRET AND DAMASCENE TO COMMEMORATE EMPEROR QIANLONG'S VICTORY IN CENTRAL ASIA (1755-59) CA. 1783-1788 |

The drawings were prepared in China by four Jesuit missionaries: Giuseppe Castiglione (Lang Shining), Jean-Denis Attiret (Wang Zhicheng), Ignatius Sichelbarth (Ai Qimeng) and Jean Damascene (An Deyi). The engravings were then sent to France, where the engravings were executed in Paris by eight artists under the direction of Charles-Nicolas Cochin of the Académie Royale at the Court of Louis XVI, and the individual engravers include Le Bas, Aliamet, Prevost, Saint-Aubin, Masquelier, Choffard and De Launay.  The copies of these engravings were so rare that Isidore-Stanislas Helman, a disciple of Le Bas reproduced the series in reduced format between 1783-1785, and with the addition of four further illustrations in 1786-1788, under the title Batailles et conquetes de l'empereur de la Chine [Battles and Conquests of the Emperor of China]. The present fifteen engravings and summary plate belong to this second edition.‎ The first plate of the series depicting the scene of Presenting the prisoners taken during the pacification of the Muslim tribes to the Emperor is missing as well as the additional plates Helman produced for this edition.

Compare‎ a set of twenty engravings from the collection of Andrew Franklin, sold at Christie's London, 10th May 2006, lot 106; and another related set of sixteen engravings, sold in our Paris rooms, 15th December 2016, lot 182.