"Papier Chine", made from bamboo bark and manufactured in the open air, giving it a gray hue, is generally considered the most luxurious of the special papers used for limited issues (grands papiers). It is exclusively used for first editions, sometimes limited to one or two copies. While it is a paper of unrivalled finesse and suppleness, its texture is also very fragile, not easy to leaf through and, above all, prone to foxing. However its unique quality has always granted it exceptional status, as Anatole France wrote in Le livre du bibliophile: “The papier de Chine deserves a special mention - its use needs to be specified. We are refering to true Chine, light as cork, very thin and very spongy at the same time, and as soft and shiny as a silk scarf. For all its qualities, papier de Chine, too inconsistent, owes its reputation not to its own beauty, but to its particular affinity with printing ink. Its texture, both smooth and soft, is better suited than any other to a fine print. This unique feature makes papier de Chine especially sought-after for the printing of engravings... The print comes out with incomparable sharpness. Books printed in small-format texts particularly benefit from being printed on papier de Chine.”
Illustrated edition with 13 colour plates on brown paper by Arthur Rackham tipped in with captioned tissue guards, together with 14 black-and-white illustrations in the text by Rackham, including a frontispiece portrait of Alice, one of the very rare 20 copies on Japon, signed by Arthur Rackham on the limitation page, copy from the deluxe issue. A few name copies on the same paper were also issued.
Publisher’s full vellum binding, smooth spine lettered in gilt with a gilt illustration of the Cheshire Cat, upper cover stamped in gilt with the title and an illustration of two fantastic creatures, illustrated endpapers, top edge gilt. Occasional light foxing.
A handsome copy of the most sought-after of Rackham’s illustrated works, one of the exceedingly rare copies on Japon paper.
Provenance: manuscript ex-libris on the half-title of Maurice Feuillet, celebrated press illustrator, notably for major legal trials, as well as art critic and founder of the 'Figaro artistique'. Feuillet remains renowned for his courtroom sketches during the trials of Émile Zola in 1898 and Alfred Dreyfus in 1899.
First edition, one of 50 numbered copies on China paper, the only copies printed on deluxe paper.
A pleasing copy.
Illustrated with plates by Louis Dunki.
First edition, one of 8 numbered copies on Chinese paper, the deluxe issue.
Bound in full red morocco, smooth spine, spine and boards decorated with a geometric design of black and gilt fillets representing interlaced mountain peaks in zigzag pattern, endpapers and pastedowns illustrated with an original lithograph signed in pencil by Germaine de Coster, following endpapers of red paper, original wrappers and spine preserved, top edge gilt; a very elegant contemporary binding signed by Hélène Dumas and Germaine de Coster.
This copy is further enriched with an original charcoal portrait of Jean Giono, signed by Robert Joël and mounted on a stub after the front wrapper.
A copy of the deluxe issue, magnificently bound in full morocco with a geometric design by Hélène Dumas, and with lithographed endpapers by Germaine de Coster.
Actes et paroles - Avant l'exil, 1841-1851 [Words and Deeds - Before the Exile, 1841-1851]
Michel Lévy frères, Paris 1875, 19,5x25cm, bound.
First edition, one of 20 numbered copies on chine, most limited deluxe edition of this important collection of speeches, public declarations, and political texts intended for French parliament (Chamber of Peers, Constituent Assembly and Legislative Assembly), all written - as stated in the title - prior to his exile. These important texts address freedom of the press, theater and education, as well as the abolition of the death penalty.
Half red shagreen binding, smooth spine decorated in gilt lengthwise, marbled paper boards, caillouté pastedowns and endpapers, original covers preserved, top edge gilt over untrimmed edges.
Exceptional and loving signed inscription by Victor Hugo to his daughter-in-law Alice Lehaene - widow of Charles Hugo - and his beloved grandchildren: "To my dear daughter and your sweet mother, my Georges, my Jeanne, [signed:] Papapa" (A ma chère fille et à votre douce mère, mon Georges, ma Jeanne, Papapa).
"We called him Papapa. Legend has it - he surrounded us with legends! - that one morning at Hauteville House, while he was working in that glass cage perched at the top of the house, little Georges came in and said: - Hello Papapa! [...] To hear the son of his son Charles who had just died, pronounce this unknown word, the grandfather was overjoyed for he knew the secret language of children: Georges' stammer made him twice a father, much more than a grandfather. [...] ‘My name is Papapa now,' he said, softly. And until he died, my sister and I called him by this dearest name, which he always cherished" (Georges-Victor Hugo, [My Grandfather] Mon grand-père, Paris: Calmann-Lévy)
In 1871, after the tragic and unexpected death of his son Charles, Victor Hugo became guardian of his two grandchildren Georges and Jeanne. From then on, he played a large part in their upbringing and spent some of the happiest moments of his life with them, reflected in the countless endearing notes about the two children in Choses vues [Things Seen]. Upon the death of his last son François-Victor, he moved in with Georges and Jeanne's mother Alice at 21 rue de Clichy; on the floor below, he lodged Juliette Drouet. This gave him plenty of time to spend with his "little ones", for whom he organized children's dinners and made plenty of toys. The children are the subject of his immensely popular poetry collection, L'Art d'être grand-père (1877) [The Art of Being a Grandfather]. "Its popularity was immediate and its success resounding, so dazzling was his way of celebrating childhood by telling the story of Georges, Jeanne and himself. By putting children's words into verse so naturally and freshly, Georges et Jeanne's "Papapa" has succeeded like no other in exalting "grandparental" feelings. At home, these feelings are not limited to allowing children to leave their toys lying around on manuscripts: when Alice remarried journalist and politician Édouard ‘Lockroy' Simon – contributor to Le Rappel – Hugo opposed him sharing guardianship" (Sandrine Fillipetti, Victor Hugo)
This inaugural volume of Actes et paroles [Deeds and Words] containing Victor Hugo's first major political texts, is a poignant testimony to his humanist commitments. The "little" owners of this precious copy received their grandfather's intellectual and militant legacy: from his "Discours de réception" at the Académie française (1841) to his famous stance against Napoleon III "Révision de la Constitution" ("No! after Napoleon the Great, I don't want Napoleon 'le Petit'!") which led to his exile. At the heart of this compilation is a highly significant text "For Charles Hugo. The death penalty" delivered by Hugo before the Seine Assize Court in 1851 in defense of his son, father of Jeanne and Georges, convicted for an article against death penalty: "What my son has written, he has written, I repeat, because I inspired it in him from childhood, because at the same time as he is my son by blood, he is my son in spirit, because he wants to continue his father's legacy"
This beautiful gift to two children aged six and seven was undoubtedly offered with the intent to uphold the family tradition of commitment to freedom.
First edition, one of 50 numbered copies on China paper, the only deluxe copies with 50 on Japan.
Work decorated with illustrations by Abel Boyé.
Half brown morocco with corners binding, smooth spine decorated with a gilt cartouche decorated with floral decorative motifs with pieces of brown mosaic morocco, gilt date at foot, some slight rubbing to the headcaps, gilt fillets frame on the marbled paper covers, endpapers and pastedowns of pebbled paper, covers in duplicate state and spine preserved, top edge gilt, elegant binding signed Canape.
Handsome copy beautifully executed.
First edition, one of 110 numbered copies on China paper, the only printing along with 12 copies on Japon nacré paper and 1 on Chine, variously enriched.
Illustrated with 11 original color lithographs by Jean Fautrier.
Autograph inscription from Robert Ganzo to a couple of his acquaintance.
Manuscript signatures of the author and illustrator on the justification page.
This copy retains its original glassine wrapper showing spiders wandering in the webs they've woven
Occasional very light spotting, a good copy.
