A propos de cet article
LIMITED EDITION, no. 30 of 1500. In French. 8vo, pp. 327, [1 blank] +colour frontis and 11 Art Deco-style plates by Marty; printed in orange and black. Finely bound by O. Habersaat in three quarters green morocco, single gilt rules, gilt-tooled spine with heart designs highlighted in red morocco, marbled boards. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Green marbled endpapers with gilt highlights, green, red and yellow ribbon marker. Spine tobacco-toned, gently rubbed. Lengthy gift inscription in blue pen to second blank, addressed to "a ce tres cher Major Crean" and citing Charles Péguy, gently tobacco-toned, scatter of fox spots to margins of plates, a few grubby finger-marks, else clean and tight. In a custom-made slipcase: green cloth edges, marbled sides: scantest rubbing and shelf wear to top edge and corners. Very good/ very good A deliciously bound and strikingly illustrated copy of this 1937 limited edition of Pierre Louÿs' Lesbian literary hoax, featuring twelve colour plates by the French fashion illustrator and theatrical designer, André Édouard Marty. First published in 1894, Pierre Louÿs' playful literary hoax purportedly translated the recently unearthed verses of Bilitis, a 6th century BCE female poet from Myteline (Lesbos), and acolyte of 'Psappha'. The decadent author failed to hoodwink contemporary classicists, but his book was, nevertheless, a publishing phenomenon, variously reissued and oft-translated by private presses in France and abroad. Moreover, Louÿs' collection of prose poems would influence twentieth century lesbian cultures, from Natalie Clifford Barney's Cinq Petits Dialogues Grecs (1902) to the 1950s US political and social lesbian group, Daughters of Bilitis (Castle, 2003). André Édouard Marty (1882 1974) was a Parisian fashion illustrator and theatrical designer, associated with the Gazette du Bon Ton. His career flourished in the interwar period, when his work appeared in Vogue, Femina, L'Illustration des Modes, Monsieur, Harper's Bazar, Le Sourire and House and Garden, amongst other publications; he illustrated around 50 books. The year of publication was a significant one for Marty, who worked alongside the architect Louis Süe at the Exposition Internationale 1937, on the decoration of the jardin d'hiver of the Pavillon de la Société des Artistes Décorateurs, painting four wall panels devoted to the subjects of Pole Vaulting, Horseback Riding, Basketball and Tennis. The binder Otto Habersaat was active in Paris from 1940 to 1960. The affectionate gift inscription to "very dear Major Crean," for Christmas day 1943, rather intriguingly (and possibly suggestively), quotes lines from the French poet Charles Péguy: "Nos Français sont comme tout le monde, dit Dieu. Peu de saints beaucoup de pêcheurs. Un saint trois pêcheurs. Et trente pêcheurs. Et trois cents pêcheurs. Et plus.". Borrowed both by the French resistance and Vichy followers, it remains frustratingly unclear who our inscriber was. Terry Castle (ed.) (2003) The Literature of Lesbianism: A Historical Anthology from Ariosto to Stonewall. New York: Columbia University Press.
N° de réf. du vendeur 3202
Contacter le vendeur
Signaler cet article
