"Victor LeBoutillier: Archeveque de Tours" by Claude Mellan, Fr., (1598-1688)

Engraving, 1658, ed. unknown, an early state of the full plate before  inscriptions and before the plate was cut down to frame the head and shoulders against the drape at left and trees at right. The image measures 13-3/16 x 9-9/16, with thread margins, on a thin grayish laid paper, with an elaborate heraldic fish watermark. There is a collectors ink monogram recto lower left corner, and various old inscriptions and hinges on the verso, a vertical crease image center through the subject, diagonal crease lower left corner and small clip to upper left corner tip. Unusual in the early state and from the same artist who brought you the Sudarium of St. Veronica, the famous Head of Christ engraving, being a technical tour de force drawn with a single curled line radiating from the tip of his nose.