Les Fleurs du Mal

Paris: M. A. Blaizot, 1917.
Edition du Cinquantenaire de Baudelaire.

38cm x 28cm. [vi], 362 pages, 4 original drawings, 171 plates. Fine full purple leather decorative signed binding by Henri Blanchetiere with the original wrappers bound in, slipcase. Text is in French.

One of 12 on Japon Imperial from a deluxe edition of 24 numbered copies of The Flowers of Evil illustrated by Almery Lobel-Riche and published on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Baudelaire’s death. This copy from the collection of actor and bibliophile Barry Humphries, with his bookplate; bound in a fine binding signed H. Blanchetiere 1923, with illustrative inlays, the upper board depicting a branch of flowers with a reclining nude woman around which a snake slithers, the spine with a lyre motif, the lower board with a cat, and the inner boards decorated with inlaid leather floral patterns in an Art Nouveau style after Charles Meunier by Henri Blanchetiere. Illustrated throughout by Lobel-Riche with 43 etchings in multiple states: a frontispiece portrait of the author in 2 states, 40 etchings in 4 states, 1 etching in 6 states (Le Chat), and 1 etching in 3 states (a rejected plate for Les Yeux de Berthe), as well as an original signed drawing in pen, ink and crayon at the front (for La Geante), an original watercolour (for Chanson d’apres-midi), and 2 original sketches (for La Mort des amants and Priere d’un paien).

Very minor rubbing to spine. Very minor pulling to spine crown. Slipcase with moderate rubbing to edges. Near Fine Condition.

AU$15,000.00

1 in stock