Les Maitresses


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    First Edition.

    23cm x 17cm. Quarto. 108 pages, [9] plates. Signed art nouveau binding, half sheepskin, incised decoration, marbled papered boards and endpapers, gilt top edge. Text is in French.

    The only complete work of Jules-Georges dit Jean Floux (1855-1892), French poet, journalist, and member of the Montmartre group Le Chat Noir. This copy inscribed by Floux to Benjamin Constant (1845-1902), one of the illustrators, and in a unique art nouveau binding signed by Louis Deze (1857-1930). Deze bindings are rare with many destroyed during World War II. The Mistresses is a “collection full of exquisite verses and promises that the author would certainly have kept, if the cruel death had not come to strike him in full youth” (Bertrand Millanvoye: Anthologie des poètes de Montmartre). Illustrated with 9 plates from Jean Beraud, Benjamin-Constant, Leon Maxime Faivre, Fanny Fleury, Hector Giacomelli, Pierre-Paul-Leon Glaize, Luc-Olivier Merson, Pierre Vignal, and Yamamoto Hosui.

    Minor wear and rubbing to leather. Original wrappers bound in with an original drawing to rear. Inkstamps to title, first page, and verso of rear endpaper. Occasional minor foxing. Some offsetting to rectos from plates. Very Good Condition.

    SOLD