The sale features an impressive array of books and manuscripts from the 15th to the 21st century, including first editions of key French literary texts: La Fontaine's Fables, Dumas' Les Trois Mousquetaires and Vingt ans après, as well as Breton's L'Amour fou on rose paper and one of the finest copies of Proust's À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs with two plates. Also on display are first editions of famous scientific texts: Galileo's Dialogo, Descartes' Discours de la méthode and the first Parisian edition of Montaigne's Essais. Among the manuscripts are a precious collection of Barbara's songs, letters from Baudelaire, Céline, Flaubert and Monet, as well as original drawings by Victor Hugo, Jouve - for Le Livre de la Jungle, which also includes an original bronze plaque - a self-portrait by Karl Lagerfeld and an impressive collection of over 700 fashion drawings by Maison Goupy (1924-1931). Also of note is an important set of books by the Russian avant-garde (Rodchenko, Maïakovski or El Lissitzky), including one with a rare original collage by Rodchenko, Apollinaire's Calligrammes illustrated by De Chirico in a masterly binding by Paul Bonet, 1 ¢ life illustrated by the great Pop Art artists in a stunning pop binding by Leroux ; Il était une petite pie, the first book illustrated by Miró, in an original openwork binding by Miguet, as well as a set of lithographs made for Le Lézard aux plumes d'or; Mr and Mrs Woodmann with erotic photographs by Man Ray; or Uecker's ΓΡΑφΕΙΝ with original embossing.

Highlights

Modern book illustration in the twentieth century is protean, following the avant-garde movements. Surrealists such as Dalí, Miró and De Chirico provided some of their finest plates for emblematic books of the century, with illustrations very different from those used by Russian artists such as Mayakovsky, Rodchenko and Malevich for their revolutionary volumes. A more traditional, rare copy of Les Poèmes de T'ao Ts'ien, on Japon, features a double sequence of engravings. The Pop Art masterpiece, 1 ¢ life, is illustrated by Warhol, Lichtenstein, Sam Francis, Rauschenberg and others. Two contemporary art books forsake traditional engraving: Lucio Fontana pierces his Concetto spaziale pages with holes, and Uecker prints relief plates, without inking, for his ΓΡΑφΕΙΝ [Graphein] in 2002.

Modern Illustrated Books

From Greuze to Karl Lagerfeld, fashion plays an important role in the sale, combining engravings, drawings and advertising models. A trip to Italy inspired Greuze's delightful collection Divers Habillements suivant le costume d'Italie, published in 1768. Two drawings by Carle Vernet, depicting respectively an “Incroyable” and a “Merveilleuse”, enrich Guillaumot's work devoted to Directoire costumes. One of the highlights of this collection stands out. It consists of 762 drawings in eight volumes, a precious testimony to the activities of the Goupy house. The drawings present the collections of this highly sought-after couture house from 1924 to 1931. Echoing this women's fashion anthology is an album of some one hundred brochures, catalogs and posters printed by Draeger for men's ready-to-wear in the 1950s-1960s, as well as two albums featuring several hundred advertising models for the leading perfume and cosmetics houses of the 1930s, including Coty, Guerlain, Houbigant, Hermès, Lancôme and Roger &amp; Gallet. Finally, a self-portrait of Karl Lagerfeld, a Parisian fashion icon, shows the couturier in front of the Eiffel Tower, a true declaration of love for his city of adoption.

Fashion

Our catalog features several original drawings. Seven large paintings and baroque edgings illustrate a patent of Spanish aristocracy (circa 1719). Victor Hugo offered three caricature drawings to his friend Auguste Vacquerie (circa 1835-1837), as well as a touching pen and ink wash drawing probably of Villequier (1847), where his daughter Léopoldine drowned in 1843. We should also mention the fine set of archaeological drawings that Louis Destouches produced in Pompeii around the forum, as well as an album tracing the career of François Thiollet, presenting his architectural achievements, excavations and projects. In the Roaring Twenties, the Maison Goupy established a catalog of nearly 800 original dress designs to show to its elegant customers. At the same time in Russia, but with more revolutionary intent, Rodchenko illustrated a rare collection by Mayakovsky with an original collage, while Alexandra Exter illuminated a manuscript with several highly innovative gouaches. Two original drawings by De Chirico enhance an exceptional copy of Apollinaire's Calligrammes, while Paul Jouve enriches a copy of Le Livre de la Jungle with three original gouaches depicting his exotic bestiary. Erotic drawings by Rojan accompany free verse by Radiguet, and Karl Lagerfeld paints his self-portrait in front of the Eiffel Tower.

Original Drawings

The 1917 Russian Revolution not only changed the world: these revolutionaries also changed the book, both in layout and illustration, as demonstrated by this collection of some twenty Russian avant-garde books (lots 55 to 70). El Lissitzsky's innovative layout and Rodchenko's photomontage covers changed the aesthetics of the book. A precious original collage by Rodchenko illustrates a rare collection by Mayakovsky, of which less than 10 copies were published. Also rare, two original editions of Malevich's more theoretical works are important contributions to the history of art: Ot' kubizma i futurizma k suprematizmu [From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism] and O novykh sistemakh v iskusstve [New Systems in Art]. Propaganda objects, two books for children, by El Lissitzsky (Pro dva kvadrata) and Mayakovsky (Sovietskaia Azbuka), are very rare. Exiled to France, Alexandra Exter devoted much of her art to illuminating precious manuscripts, such as a Lydia Cabrera manuscript featuring several original gouaches.

Russian Avant-Garde

Bindings are often the pretext for large-scale decorations that reflect the taste of the period, the content of the book it covers, or the mark of the owner (coat of arms or cipher). They also bear witness to the inventiveness of bookbinders. Priezac's Discours politiques (1652-1654), dedicated to Chancellor Séguier, was bound in his coat of arms by Pierre Rocolet's workshop, in an abundance of small-iron decoration. Around 1870, Japanese style was in vogue, and bindings were no exception. A fine example is the binding of Daudet's Port-Tarascon by Carayon, one of the masters in this field. The twentieth century abounded in bookbinders as talented as they were inventive, of whom Paul Bonet is a leading figure. Two of his masterful bindings are featured in the sale. One, on Apollinaire's Calligrammes, illustrated by De Chirico, features a clever and elegant decoration where the letters of the title, the author and the illustrator intermingle. For Colette's La Treille Muscate, illustrated by Dunoyer de Segonzac, Paul Bonet finds his inspiration in the title, with a large, radiant decoration of bunches of grapes. Le Livre de la Jungle, in its handsome binding adorned with one of Jouve's rare bronze plates, pays tribute to one of the great names of the Art Deco period. Pierre-Lucien Martin, with his openwork binding on the first Miró-illustrated book Il était une petite pie by Lise Hirtz (Deharme), is humorously inspired by the Spanish painter's palette. Lastly, Georges Leroux dresses the mythical 1 ¢ life, a pop art masterpiece, in an explosive binding, in the image of a book where different styles rub shoulders.

Bindings

Manuscripts take pride of place in the sale, and the great names of French literature rub shoulders with painters, politicians and the icon of French chanson, Barbara. Voltaire, in 1733, confided that he wanted to tackle the Histoire du siècle de Louis XIV, while Mirabeau, a few years later, incarcerated in Vincennes, begged his wife to do him justice. The 19th century is abundantly represented, with a mixture of letters, correspondences and literary manuscripts. Among these are three letters from Baudelaire, including a very long one to Poulet-Malassis on the subject of Paradis artificiels, two letters from Flaubert, several letters from Zola relating to his works, letters and a poem by Victor Hugo, and poems by Verlaine, some of which are collected in Parallèlement and Dédicaces. A fine collection of letters is assembled around Monet, including several letters from the artist, as well as letters from Signac, Cézanne and Caillebotte. The catalog also includes letters from Chagall, Kandinsky, Clemenceau and Garibaldi. Among the literary manuscripts are two plates by Proust, one entirely handwritten, in the rare deluxe edition of À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs, the preface to George Sand's Rimes neuves et vieilles, several manuscripts by Céline for D'un château l'autre and a fine love letter by Pieyre de Mandiargues. Last but not least, a precious collection of Barbara's manuscripts includes drafts of a dozen songs, including “Nantes”, “La Dame brune”, “La Solitude” and “Le Bel âge”.

Letters and Manuscripts

This sale pays tribute to great texts and writers. Galileo and Descartes are undoubtedly among the great innovators of our philosophical and scientific thought. In the world of literature, there are such famous authors as Montaigne, La Fontaine, Dumas, Proust and Breton. In his Dialogo, first published in Florence in 1632, here in a beautiful contemporary vellum binding, Galileo's defense of Copernicus and opposition to Ptolemy aroused the wrath of the Pope, who had all seized copies destroyed. The Dialogo went on to become one of the most important texts in modern physics. Five years later, Descartes published his Discours de la méthode, a landmark work in the history of Western philosophy. A century earlier, in 1587, Montaigne published the extremely rare first Parisian edition of his Essais, here in a precious copy in contemporary vellum; equally rare are the first editions of La Fontaine's Fables, in contemporary bindings; and the mythical and equally rare Les Trois Mousquetaires, and its sequel Vingt ans après, in first editions and contemporary bindings. Finally, the 20th century pays homage to two geniuses, Proust and Breton: with the magnificent deluxe edition of À l'ombre des jeunes-filles en fleurs in its ravishing stencilled cartonnage, accompanied by two large plates by Proust, one entirely handwritten; or an attractive copy on pink paper of L'Amour fou.

Key Literary and Scientific Works

Paris

Director | Head of Department

Anne Heilbronn

Director | Specialist

Patricia de Fougerolle

Benoit Puttemans

Sale Coordinator | Books

Fanny Gras

Meet our Specialists

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