Joseph-Athanase Dano. Plans concernant les manœuvres et évolutions de l’Infanterie suivant l’ordonnance du Roÿ du 20 Mars 1764. Désignés par Joseph Dano, Officier au Regmt suisse d’Eptingen. In-folio (311 x 215 mm). Handwritten title in ink within a pencil-sketched frame and 8 large plates (31 x 41.6 cm) drawn in ink, watercolored and framed, laminated on strong paper and mounted on tabs. Binding of paper boards from the early 20th century.
Joseph-Athanase Dano, born in Freiburg im Breisgau, entered the king’s service on March 10, 1762, and joined the regiment on June 1, becoming second lieutenant at the age of 23.
Exceptional document showing the regiment on parade (with a legend also used for all the plates), then in battle movement (flanking la Haÿe, breaking the retreating column, doubling the lines forward and then on the same alignment), various fires (by platoon, division and half-battalion) and road fires. The titles are presented on large, decorated ribbons. The drawings are precise and finely watercolored in blue, yellow and pink.
The Swiss Eptingen Regiment was formed on February 25, 1758, following an agreement between the King of France and the Prince-Bishop of Basel. Two-thirds of the regiment were subjects of the prince, and it took part in the German campaigns (1760-1762) of the Seven Years’ War, and in the Corsican campaign (1767). Once the hostilities were over, the regiment remained in its traditional garrison towns on the borders of Alsace and the North, not far from the bishopric of Basel, ready to intervene should the need arise. (See D. Bregnard, Le Parcours du combattant, 1997).
Provenance : Handwritten bookplate on title by « Cit[oyen] Pannissett, volontaire du dit Régiment dans les Campagnes Disle de Corse, 1767 ». [Louis XV had just bought Corsica from the Genoese, and pacified the island. The epic cost the regiment over a hundred deaths, with epidemics killing more than the fighting.]
Handwritten bookplate in Latin, probably earlier, of Ernest Antoine Joger [or Jager] on a label pasted to the bottom of a fine profession of Christian faith, continued on a second leaf (leaves pasted to header and tail).
The title and plates, glued on strong paper, show more or less extensive restored tears. The set must have been used and then stored folded, as indicated by the poor original condition and traces of folding. The binding shows heavy wear on the spine, with some paper missing.
An extremely rare document, however.
2 200 €