(b Paris, 19 March 1730; d Paris, 7 March 1809). French engraver, illustrator and writer. He came from a poor family and trained with Guillaume Dheulland (c. 1700–c. 1770) by drawing cartouches for maps. He also had lessons from Pierre-Edmé Babel, a goldsmith and designer of ornament. Having designed mainly cartouches, coats of arms and various types of ornament in the 1750s, he gained recognition as a designer of culs-de-lampe and fleurons, which were considered indispensable for all lavishly produced books. In particular, he produced 57 illustrations for La Fontaine’s Contes in the Fermiers Généraux edition (Paris, 1762) and 38 fleurons and culs-de-lampe for Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Lemire’s and Bassan’s edition (Paris, 1767–71). His long-standing acquaintance Charles-Nicolas Cochin II entrusted him with engraving two plates for the Conquêtes de l’Empereur de la Chine (1767–73; Roux, nos 227–8), an important series of large-scale prints on which the best French engravers were being employed. Large plates are, however, rare in Choffard’s oeuvre; he devoted himself mainly to book decoration, such as fleurons for the Abbé de Saint-Non’s Le Voyage pittoresque ou description du royaume de Naples et de Sicile (Paris, 1781–6) and to engraving illustrations designed by others. Having little ability as an entrepreneur, he entered an arrangement with the Société Typographique in Geneva, whereby 30 plates after drawings by Cochin for the Collection complète des oeuvres de Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Geneva, 1782) would be delivered in instalments; however, he suspended delivery after engraving (or arranging to have engraved) only six plates for Emile. There was less work of this kind during the French Revolution, and he spent the rest of his life planning a large book on engraving; only the introduction was published, as Notice historique sur l’art de la gravure (Paris, 1804).

• Choffard, Pierre-Philippe
  • Ficquet, Etienne
  • Longueil, Joseph de
  • pupils
    • Meynier, Charles
  • works
    • Vignette