ESSAYS AFTER THE CARTOONS OF RAPHAEL at Windsor Drawn by the gracious Permission of His Majesty and by Permission most humbly Inscribed to Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain By Her Majesty's most Grateful Devoted Servant J. Ruyssen.

LARGE FOLIO, paper size approximately 28x22 inches- Extremely rare set of fifteen of sixteen engraved prints in the actual size of the heads in Raphael's cartoons for the Sistine Chapel tapestry series "The Acts of the Apostles". The prints were engraved by Antoine Cardon after drawings made by Nicolas Joseph Ruyssen. Being the calligraphic title page, engraved portrait of Raphael and 14 of 15 large engraved plates from the details of paintings of the Acts of the Apostles, some bound in the original boards and 5 loose- PLUS 11 duplicates. Engravings on wove paper some watermarked 'J Whatman 1794'. Some fraying to the loose plates and occasional spotting. Some of the original flimsies adhering to the versos not affecting the image. A very detailed catalogue description of this scarce work by the rare bookseller Robin Halwas can be found online. His descriptive list of plates is below - plate 10 in the list is missing. List of prints- [1] foreground figure (male), from the Death of Ananias, dated 15 October 1798 (matrice- plate mark 580 × 445 mm) [2] foreground figure (female), from the Death of Ananias, dated 15 October 1798 (matrice 565 × 435 mm) [3] an Apostle, from the Charge to Peter, dated 15 October 1798 (matrice 575 × 445 mm) [4] Peter, from the Miraculous Draught of Fishes, dated 1 January 1800 (matrice 575 × 470 mm) [5] figure (male), from the Death of Ananias, dated October 1801 (matrice 560 × 435 mm) [6] an Athenian, from Paul preaching at Athens, dated 15 October 1798 (matrice 570 × 440 mm) [7] subsidiary head (female), from the Healing of the Lame Man, dated 1 January 1800 (matrice 595 × 485 mm) [8] a child, from the Healing of the Lame Man, dated 1 January 1800 (matrice 600 × 490 mm) [9] John, from The Charge to Peter, dated 1 January 1800 (matrice 575 × 470 mm) [10] two children, from the Sacrifice at Lystra, dated 15 October 1798 (matrice 490 × 590 mm) [11] two Apostles, from the Charge to Peter, dated October 15, 1798 (matrice 510 × 595 mm) [12] two background figures (female and male), from the Healing of the Lame Man, dated 1 January 1800 (matrice 620 × 500 mm) [13] subsidiary figure (female), from the Healing of the Lame Man, dated 1 January 1800 (matrice 620 × 490 mm) [14] two background figures (male), from the Healing of the Lame Man, dated 10 August 1801 (matrice 690 × 515 mm) [15] three background figures, from the Sacrifice at Lystra, dated 10 August 1801 (matrice 530 × 630 mm) A VERY POWERFUL COLLECTION OF ENGRAVINGS AFTER RAPHAEL- 15 plus 11 duplicates.…