La légende de Saint-Julien l'hospitalier

FLAUBERT Gustave
     illustration by MERSON Luc-Olivier
La Légende de Saint-Julien l’Hospitalier [The Legend of Saint-Julian the Hospitaller]
A. Ferroud, Paris 1895, 16 x 25 cm, artistic calf binding with custom slipcase
Illustrated with 26 original compositions by Luc-Olivier Merson etched by Géry-Bichard, one of 500 numbered copies on vélin d’Arches paper.
Exceptional artistic binding by Gruel, brown polished calf, double gilt cartouche to spine, gilt roulettes to head- and tail-pieces, quadruple gilt fillet frame and blindstamped frieze to covers, covers with two large central painted panels with dream-like motifs, signed and dated by Jeanne Dinet-Rollince, 1907, quadruple fillet frame and gilt floral motifs to corners of pastedowns, pastedowns with large painted parchment panels with medallions of hunted animals in a Greek cross, itself framed with vegetal and Orthodox liturgical motifs, the paintings signed and dated at bottom left “Rollince 1908.” Endpapers lined with green silk, double gilt fillets to edges of covers, wrappers preserved, all edges gilt, limp marbled paper slipcase.
Ink autograph inscription signed by Jeanne Rollince to Professor Leguen to endpaper. Jeanne Dinet-Rollince, sister and biographer of the Orientalist painter étienne Dinet, was her-
self an artist whose works are rare and sought-after. She worked several times with the celebrated artistic binder Léon Gruel, for whom she executed morocco mosaics and, as here, original paintings on vellum integrated into the covers of bindings. Advertising brochure bound in at end.
A magnificent copy in a spectacular decorated binding by Gruel.
$ 5 500