L'envers du music-hall

First edition, an advance (service de presse) copy.
Half cherry-red morocco over marbled paper boards by Goy & Vilaine, spine in six compartments, marbled pastedowns and endpapers, covers (slightly wormed, spine sunned) preserved, top edge gilt. Endpapers and half-title faded, a few small marginal spots.
Important inscription from Colette to Viscountess Jeanne de Bellune: « Affectueux souvenir de sa vieille amie » (“affectionate remembrance from her old friend...”)

The Viscountess of Juromenha, this end of century darling, was the lover of several intellectual female figures in the early 20th century, such as Renée Vivien and Liane de Pougy, who described her as “little gnome”. There remains no image of this “most comical lesbian”(Jacques Ars) in public collections and the only portrait we know of is that sketched by Natalie Clifford Barney, that of a “drunkard with a red face and no beauty”.

A handsome copy in a nice binding with an exceptional provenance.