DESBORDES-VALMORE (Marceline ) Poetry. Paris :... Lot 50

DESBORDES-VALMORE (Marceline ) Poetry. Paris : A. Boulland, 1830. - 2 volumes in-8, tan calf, boards and spine decorated with a different embossed decoration each time, inspired by the illustration of the book, gilt roulette inside, linings and endpapers of pink moiré silk, untrimmed, cover preserved, folder and case (20th century binding) First collective edition, partly original, illustrated with 4 hors texte engravings after Deveria, Henry Monnier, Pujol and Tony Johannot, printed on China paper, as well as 2 woodcut vignettes after Henry Monnier on the titles and the false titles, and various ornaments. Copy in a binding from the first half of the 20th century, decorated on the boards and spines with embossed and stained decoration, each inspired by an illustration of the book. This beautiful decoration was made by the painter, bookbinder and bibliographer Louis Dézé (1857-1930), whose signature can be found on the second boards. A specialist in embossed leather bindings, he worked mainly with the bookbinder Auguste Bernasconi (1879-1967). Even if one can recognize a certain naivety in the realization of the decorations, his symbolist-inspired bindings are today more and more sought after. "His works... are perhaps less perfect technically speaking than those of the masters of the time... but they are otherwise surprising, and they go infinitely further into our sensibility... A true genius, a superabundant genius, he invented or perfected a very particular, very learned technique.... An exception among his colleagues, he surely read books before dressing them, and with what sumptuousness ́!" (Hervé, "Reliures de la donation Henri Pollès : Musée du livre et des lettres. What then is an original binding? Hommage à Louis Dézé," pp. 27-29). A copy with full margins, very well preserved despite restorations to the covers. A few browned leaves, as always. The dust jackets and cases are reuses, they originally belonged to another book.