30 décembre 1865
18 janvier 1936
First edition of the French translation, one of 20 numbered copies on pur fil paper, ours one of the few hors commerce, a deluxe issue. Endpapers lightly and entirely toned. A fine copy with full margins.
Edition of Kipling's tales, translated into French by Louis Fabulet and Robert d'Humières. Numbered copy printed on Rives. Minor rubbing to the upper joint and lower corners.
Illustrated with a frontispiece by Paul Colin.
Bound in an elegant navy blue 3/4 morocco binding, spine with five raised bands and floral mosaic morocco inlays in red, green, and yellow, gilt date at foot, decorative abstract paper boards, covers framed in gilt, blue mottled paper endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers and spine preserved, top edge gilt, binding signed by Grégoire Lévitsky.
With an exceptional signed autograph inscription by Kipling from his poem "France," on the half-title, featuring several unpublished variants. This remarkable ode was composed in celebration of French President Raymond Poincaré’s official visit to London on 24 June 1913 and became the epitome of the strenghtened bonds between France and the United Kingdom. Kipling even recorded this very stanza on 23 November 1921 during a visit to Paris:
