(STOSCH, PHILIPP VON, BARON.)

Winckelmann, Johann, Joachim. Description des Pierres Grav‚es du Feu Baron de Stosch dedi‚e a Son Eminence Monseigneur le Cardinal Al‚xandre Albani. Woodcut ornaments and initials. [7], xxxii, [31] pages. 4to, contemporary calf gilt, spine with vertical splits starting, joints cracked with front cover becoming loose; front blank loose. Florence: Andr‚ Bonducci, 1760 first edition of the first complete description of the Stosch collection. According to Sinkankas, Stosch, on his deathbed in 1757, requested that Winckelmann, with whom he maintained a correspondence, prepare a systematic catalog of his collection. Winckelmann did a formidable job, describing the gems in eight classes accompanied by detailed dissertations on subjects and styles, thereby creating "the most useful of guides to the collector, hardly any type than can come into his hands not finding its counterpart and elucidation in the text of Winckelmann"--C. W. King as quoted in Sinkankas 7277.