4to (268 × 183 mm). (1) f., IV, 327 pp. Full midnight-blue morocco, central triple gilt frame on each cover with floral corner tools surrounding a double oval enclosing a mosaicked rose, outer triple gilt border, spine richly gilt with repeated mosaicked rose motif, gilt lettering and date, gilt edges, double gilt fillet to board edges, doublures of bordeaux tabis embroidered with reed motifs; original wrappers and backstrip preserved. Binding by Canape.
Illustrated edition, one of the tête-de-tirage on Japon paper. Our copy contains the engravings in triple proof state, as in the ten copies of the tirage de tête; it is no. 7.
A magnificent production by Jouaust, pairing Lamartine’s major poetic text with a luxurious illustrative programme and one of the most elaborate modern bindings by Canape, whose use of mosaicked roses and embroidered tabis here is particularly striking.
Superb copy, with only a few pale foxing spots at the beginning and end of the volume and the faintest rubbing to one corner.
Provenance: Public Library of the State of Odessa, with its stamp (11 June 1928) on the verso of the title-page. Sold as lot 280 in the Sotheby’s sale of 2 May 1939, A Valuable Library of French and other Literature, in Fine Old and Modern Bindings; the buyer, “Myers”, likely corresponds to the removed bookplate still faintly visible on the verso of the front doublure.
