First edition, rare copy with no statement of print.
Full blue morocco binding, spine with raised bands in the Jansenist style, endpapers and pastedowns of combed marbled paper, gilt dentelle framing the pastedowns, double gilt fillets and gilt tooling to headcaps and board edges, top edge gilt with untrimmed margins preserved, original front wrapper bound in, binding signed by Marius Michel. Monogrammed bookplate mounted on the verso of the first endpaper.
This copy is enriched with four hors-texte plates by Louis Boulanger and Alfred Johannot.
Signed autograph inscription by Victor Hugo on the half-title: « À Monsieur Ch[arles] Mévil son bien cordialement dévoué Victor Hugo. »
Edition of the year of the first edition, statement of 17th thousand.
Spine slightly sunned.
Autograph inscription signed by Alphonse Narcisse to madame André Morice.
Second edition, printed in a small number of copies on Hollande laid paper.
3/4 red morocco, five raised bands-spine, gilt date at foot. Slight, superficial fading to spine, marbled paperboards, pebbled flyleaves and pastedowns, original covers and spine preserved, top edge gilt, A finely executed, unsigned binding from the late 19th to early 20th century.
Provenance: from the library of Simone and André Maurois, with their engraved bookplate on front pastedown.
Signed and inscribed copy by Paul Verlaine to the opera singer Marie-Blanche Vasnier : "A Madame Vasnier, hommage respectueux. P. Verlaine." [To Madame Vasnier, with respectful homage. P. Verlaine']
Marie-Blanche Vasnier was the muse of the young Claude Debussy, fourteen years her junior, to whom he dedicated numerous songs of love.
Comme devant une place / Pleine de gens et de bruit / Je reste figé sur place / Arrêté devant ma vie
First edition on ordinary paper.
Work decorated with a frontispiece illustration by Joan Miro.
Very precious autograph inscription signed by Janine Queneau to her great friend Boris Vian: "A Boris dont je crains d'avoir bien mal suivi les conseils. Avec beaucoup d'affection. Janine." ["To Boris, whose advice I fear I have followed very poorly. With much affection. Janine."]
Provenance: Boris Vian Foundation.
