Alidor DELZANT

Autograph letter signed by Stéphane Mallarmé to Alidor Delzant. Two pages written in black ink on a bifolium. Envelope enclosed.
Also included is a signed autograph quatrain by Mallarmé on a card, the one later inscribed on the mantelpiece:
« Ici le feu pour renaître
Tantôt durable ou charmant
Comme l'amitié du maître
Mêle du chêne au sarment. »
Alidor Delzant was a lawyer, collector, and bibliophile. A friend of the Goncourt brothers, he devoted a work to them and served as Edmond’s secretary and executor.
A fine letter in which Mallarmé evokes the composition of a quatrain to adorn Delzant’s mantelpiece: « Je suis infiniment touché, et cette pensée, comme toutes les vôtres, est gracieuse. Voici un quatrain lapidaire + je conseille la gravure en capitales?; dites-moi s'il vous agrée.++ Mais usez-vous de sarments ??»
Also included is the original tracing, probably made by Mallarmé himself, of the quatrain intended to decorate the lintel of Alidor Delzant’s library fireplace in his house at Paraÿs.
Delzant’s reply to this letter is known: « Mon cher ami / Ces vers sont très beaux, juste ce qui convenait pour glorifier la Cheminée de Paraÿs où les sarments pétillent autour des bûches des chênes. / Je demeure touché et reconnaissant. / Alidor Delzant. »

Autograph letter-card signed by Stéphane Mallarmé addressed to Alidor Delzant, written in black ink on both sides. With the original envelope.
Enclosed with this letter is a quatrain in Mallarmé’s hand: "Tout en les éternisant / Bracquemond ici fait vivre / Les traits d'Alidor Delzant / A nous ouvert comme un livre."
Alidor Delzant was a lawyer, collector, and bibliophile. A friend of the Goncourt brothers, he devoted a book to them and served as Edmond’s secretary and testamentary executor.
A delightful card in which the “poëte ordinaire” refers to the making of his portrait by his friend, the painter Whistler: "j'ai honte d'avoir fui dans ma verdure au moment même où Whistler parlait de mon portrait à faire".
"On June 1st, as he had promised Whistler who, in his last letter with an affection verging on tenderness, addressed him as ‘mon Mallarmé’, he went to the painter’s studio on the rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs. ‘You will see someone from the woods, somewhere between the wild boar and the nightingale,’ he had warned playfully in announcing his visit. Painter and poet ended the day dining on the rue du Bac, where the all-too-ephemeral Trixie was now absent. In the half-light after dinner, Whistler, near a lamp, seemed to resurrect, in appearance, the extraordinary Poe. Doubtless he then repeated to Mallarmé his intention of painting him. The next day, without waiting for the Monet exhibition soon to be held at Georges Petit, the Mallarmés went on to Valvins.” (Jean-Luc Steinmetz, Stéphane Mallarmé) This was most likely the execution of another portrait of Mallarmé, of which no trace remains, Whistler having already produced one that served as the frontispiece to Vers et Prose in 1893.
He also alludes to Bracquemond’s etched portrait of Delzant: "Je comprends, du reste, l'eau-forte valant cet exil de Paraÿs [...] Redites mon affectueuse admiration toujours à Monsieur Bracquemond."

First edition.
Bradel binding in orange half cloth, smooth spine, date gilt at foot, brown shagreen title-label, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers preserved, contemporary binding.
Work illustrated with a fine frontispiece by E. Loviot.
Our copy is enhanced with an original photograph of Paul de Saint-Victor mounted facing the frontispiece.
Precious signed autograph inscription from Alidor Delzant to Louise Read: "A mademoiselle Read hommage respectueux." ["To Miss Read, respectful homage."]