Leconte de Lisle & Raphaël Freida (illustrateur)

Leconte de Lisle, Poèmes barbares. Paris, A Romagnol, 1914. Grand in-8 (29*21cm), 426p. Magnificent illustrated edition by Raphaël Freida. Limited to 301 copies, this one among 78 on Japan or Van Gelder vellum, normally containing 3 states of the engravings, second paper with 12 copies re-set in-4. Ours, No. 52, on Japan. Freida illustrated only five works. The prospectus is illustrated with 100 Freida compositions, 19 plates (including the frontispiece) and 81 headers for sonnets. Copy enriched with two prospectuses on Japan paper bound at the end of the work, papers slightly different. Our copy contains only a single suite, the pure etching, as loose sheets. Strangely, it seems that almost all of the 78 copies were supposed to contain three suites, but most have only one or two. Indeed, from this print run, apart from one copy that was enriched with many suites (including one on parchment), the five others we identified, in addition to ours, have only one or two suites out of the three. Talvart & Place (XII, 81) notes that it went on sale in December 1918. War thus also affected the edition itself. Binding signed Bernasconi, full black Jansénist morocco doubled with red morocco, gilded edges on a morocco-talon gauge, covers and spine preserved, case lined. Minor defects. The suite is presented in a thick cardboard folder that was originally meant to contain the text. This folder is therefore too thick for the suite. Magnificent work, magnificent copy, the masterpiece of Freida.

Estimate:$1,351.12

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