DRUMMOND DE MELFORT, Louis Hector. Traite sur la Cavalerie. 1776.

First edition of this famous treatise on cavalry, one of the most spectacular ever published.

The treatise itself, adorned with a beautiful frontispiece by Pierre Charles Ingouf, depicting Louis XVI reviewing the mounted troops, a title vignette by Macret, and four headings and three tailpieces engraved by various artists after Van Blaremberghe, is illustrated with 11 copper-engraved tactical plates, seven of which are double-page spreads and one folded.

This copy bears the coat of arms of the Duke of Condé, second in the list of 69 subscribers to the work, after the Duke of Chartres, who was the author's godfather.

Text volume only. The atlas, bearing the coat of arms of the Prince of Condé, was sold at the 1988 Biennale des Antiquaires, Librairie Léonce Laget, Paris, and then at Christie's in 2016.