Part of a series published between 1761 and 1788 by the Parisian Académie des Sciences entitled Descriptions des arts et métiers, or Descriptions of the Arts and Trades. The full series comprises 113 folio volumes and provides detailed information on a wide range of handcraft and manufacturing processes.

This work contains 16 plates, including 8 full-sheet folding plates illustrating distillation apparatus and a cafe. It is bound with L'art du Distillateur D'eaux-Fortes, &c. (Paris, 1775), also written by the French chemist, Jacques-François Demachy (1728-1803). The work's plates and "Explication des Planches" have been digitized.

Jean-François Demachy was a pharmacist and apothecary at the Hôtel-Dieu and then chief apothecary in the Military Hospital at St. Denis. He was a pupil of Guillaume-François Rouelle (1703-1770), a French chemist and apothecary.