Grasset,E. Lot n° 783

Les mois. Douze compositions. Gravées sur bois & imprimées en chromotypographie. Set of 12 col. Original woodcuts and 1 further suite of woodcuts in black and white. Paris, G. de Malherbe (1895). 4°. Set of 12 col. Original woodcuts in color and 1 further suite of woodcuts in black and white. Hprgt. d. (Occart. bound in) with title in red and black. Garvey/Wick 50 - Cf. Alexandre pp. 9-11 (ills.). - Each 12 splendid impressions of the month's pictures before the text (in the color set the names of the months already imprinted). A highlight in Grasset's book illustration. - The col. Woodcuts on fine Japan, the second set printed and mounted on thin tissue paper. The important Art Nouveau graphics were created in 1895 for an advertising calendar for the Parisian clothing store La Belle Jardinière, which was then published in two versions in 1896, one with the names of the months and one with company and advertising imprints. - "This series of decorative calendar pages is a lady's book à la mode with comely maidens dressed in 'aesthetic' free-flowing costumes joyfully tending their well-ordered, full-flowering gardens. These garden settings are a foil for his sense of formalized surface pattern, showing the influence of Walter Crane" (Garvey/W.). - The cardboard of the black and white woodcuts and the OU somewhat foxed, otherwise a fine copy. 12 gorgeous proofs of month illustrations before text. Set of 12 col. woodcuts on Japan and a second set of woodcuts on mounted silk paper. Contemp. half vellum (orig. wrappers bound in) with lettering in red and black. - The board with the 12 black and white woodcuts and the orig. wrappers slightly foxed, in the hole fine copy.