The Banquet given by Esther for Ahaseurus and Haman.

After Jean François de Troy by Beauvarlet, Jacques Firmin. Banquet given by Esther for Ahaseurus and Haman. "Repas donne par Esther à Assuérus." Paris Jacques Firmin Beauvarlet. 1775-1784
Black and white copper engraving By Beauvarlet After Jean François de Troy. Plate 6 from a series of seven, depicting the story of Esther, executed 1775-93 after a series of seven cartoons for tapestries designed 1736-42; plate advertised in the 'Journal de Paris', 8 September 1783. Proof before letters
The image shows the banquet given by Esther to Ahasuerus and Haman, a sumptuous scene with the main figures adorned in rich silks, surrounded by numerous attendants. Dark impression; trimmed to plate mark top and sides; attached to card at top; spotting to lower blank margin; damage at lower right where a section of the engraving has been torn and re-laid down [it looks worse in the margin, but could be covered by a mount and would not be so obvious.]

Jacques Firmin Beauvarlet (1731 - 1797)
French publisher/printer; printmaker and engraver, leader of the so-called 'Abbeville' school of engravers. He went to Paris when young, and was instructed in the art by Charles Dupuis and Laurent Cars. His first manner was bold and free, and his plates in that style are preferred by some to the more finished and highly-wrought prints that he afterwards produced, although it must be confessed that the latter are executed with great neatness and delicacy.


Jean François de Troy (1679 - 1752)
was a French Rococo painter and tapestry designer. He was one of a family of painters, being the son of the portrait painter François de Troy (1645–1730), under whom he first studied. He undertook commissions for Versailles and Fontainebleau between 1724 and 1737, and designed two sets of tapestries for the Gobelins, each of seven subjects, the Histoire d'Esther(1737–40) and the Histoire de Jason(1743–46).
Director of Rome Academy 1738-52.
British museum No;1913,1015.122 490 by 620mm (19¼ by 24½ inches).   ref: 2697  €500