Jean-Charles Delafosse was apprenticed in a sculptor's workshop, and worked as an architect, engraver and ornemaniste. He "was greatly influenced by Piranesi, whose drawings and prints he studied. He produced numerous pattern books and collections of prints, some of which were intended as designs for actual objects, whereas other were pure fantasies of ornamental choreography. His influence is apparent in many of the buildings and applied arts of the later eighteenth century – not only in France, but elsewhere in Europe. His most influential work was his Nouvelle Iconologie Historique, published in Paris between 1767 and 1785. Delafosse’s drawings, especially his most spirited designs, can be very spontaneously sketched and ‘painterly’ in nature, while his more practical designs are meticulously drawn and finished, since these were intended to be followed by craftsmen." (Mark Broch, Foolscap Fine Art.)