L. Carteret

Illustrated edition in first and only printing with 18 hors-texte and one etched header, with 2 title vignettes by Julian-Damazy colored in watercolor. Initial letters also heightened with watercolor. Limited to 400 copies. One of 300 on Holland paper numbered 186.
Contemporary full green morocco binding with mosaic work, signed Blanchetière at the bottom of the front pastedown, with slipcase covered in beautiful handmade paper in gold, green and white, and bordered with brown morocco. Spine with 4 raised bands decorated with 4 compartments in pink morocco mosaic with dotted fillets following the contours. A central iron mosaic in green. Author, title and date gilt at tail. Boards with mosaic work of a wide pink morocco frame with Phrygian caps in the corners, dotted and gilt fillets. Pastedown with pink morocco border and gilt fillets. Top edge gilt. Covers and spine preserved. Spine now uniformly brown. Superb paper, perfectly fresh. Uncut copy with full margins.
Very handsome copy.
One of the particularly fresh and successful tales by the famous ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN duo, set in 1792 in the Vosges. The novel tells the story of a sutler left for dead on the battlefield of Anstatt. This novel resurrects glorious times, the struggle of thirty thousand volunteers from Hoche's army against eighty thousand soldiers of Brunswick and Wurmser.

Edition illustrated with 29 original compositions by François Schommer (including the cover), one of 75 deluxe numbered copies on Japan or Marais laid paper, ours on Japan paper, deluxe issue.
Full blue morocco binding, spine very lightly sunned with five raised bands set with gilt dots and decorated with gilt interlaced designs, date and place gilt at foot, gilt roulettes on headcaps, wide frame of fifteen gilt fillets in interlaced pattern on boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, frame of gilt fillets in interlaced pattern on pastedowns, double gilt fillets on edges, covers preserved, top and fore edges gilt, engraved bookplate pasted on one pastedown, elegant English binding very slightly later dated 1913 and signed Zaehnsdorf, Hungarian binder established in London.
Each illustration, in double state in our copy, was engraved with burin and etching by Léon Boisson.
Handsome copy perfectly executed in a very slightly later English binding.

First printing of the illustrated edition. One of 100 deluxe copies on Japan or China paper, here on China paper No. XLIII numbered by hand and justified. General printing of 600 copies. 24 engravings in 3 states, line, in black, in colors, totaling 72 illustrations. The stones, as stipulated in the printing notice, were destroyed.
Contemporary half orange morocco binding with corners signed Strobants. Raised band spine decorated with mirror irons set in a succession of compartments, roulettes at head and tail. Top edge gilt. Covers and spine preserved. Some foxing on the title page and in the margins, but very rare.
Engraved armorial bookplate by Malatesta: Bibliothèque de Monsieur H. Del Monte.
Painter, engraver and illustrator, Alexandre Lunois remained renowned for his color lithographic washes. To interpret his own drawings, he employs an almost forgotten process, treating the stone with a brush dipped in lithographic ink, in other words like a wash. The textures, nuances, color contrasts obtained distinguish his style. The result is a contrasted and violent style, which perfectly illustrates orientalism, as seen in Fortunio, a true painter's book and one of his major productions. He delights in giving different states of his engravings whose deep blacks are remarkable. About an orientalist plate, Edmond de Goncourt notes in his journal: "A very remarkable plate is a lithograph by Lunois entitled Danseuses espagnoles dans la danse. A plate of the greatest character escaping Japanese imitation through the intensity of tones, the raw blue of the background, the yellow, the frank red, the blacks of nocturnal shadow in full figure."

Edition illustrated with 14 original lithographs by Maurice Eliot and printed in 200 numbered copies on vellum.
Our copy contains a triple state of lithographs.
Handsome copy.

Edition decorated with 13 original illustrations by Maurice Leloir engraved with burin and etching by Léon Boisson, one of 125 numbered copies on vélin du Marais, the only deluxe copies after 75 Japan.
Foxing on spine and in margins of boards, handsome interior condition.