This Book
And an extraordinarily beautiful book it is too. Purchased as an investment piece. I must admit that I am not a particular fan of the artist Viset, (Luc Lafnet), even though I have had many books illustrated my him, his Viset identity is usually reserved for his explicit work, Jim Black, mainly for his flagellation material. If I have to choose, then the Viset material, to me is comically obscene, and Jim Black, just weird but not really weird enough.
As for clandestine publishing, and its mysteries, then the combination of Perceau, Briffaut and Duflou, singularly or in any combination, have produced some of the finest of books and this one is no exception, I leave the decision making to the experts and my favourite expert is Patrick Kearney and the bibliographical description is his.
Note: The images are in book form and taken in a way that does not stress or damage the book, as a result they are not flattened images, and may have shadows caused by the curvature of the page when the image is taken, I adjust exposure to give the clearest picture for presentation on this site, the images in the book are clearer and sharper than the images presented here, they are after all engraved plates and not photographs.
Title Page
This Book: GAUTIER, Théophile. – Lettres à la Présidente et galanteries poétiques. édition contenant soixante-cinq lettres inédites et le texte exact de la lettre d’Italie. Publiée avec une introduction et des notes par Helpey [Louis Perceau]. Accompagnée d’une étude sur la Présidente par Sylvestre Bonnard [Pierre Dufay]. Neuilly [Paris]: éditions du Musée secret [?Maurice Duflou],
1927.
Beautifully bound in quarter black leather, with 5 raised bands, author and title in gilt on spine, on blue and grey marbled boards, with matching inner lining. Three sets of additional fep’s, Original covers and spine preserved. Photographic frontispiece of the author, title page printed in red and black matches the cover exactly, 199 numbered pages, printed on Japon Imperial. Letter “I” of 15 copies lettered A-0. (dimensions in binding (23.5 x16 cm) (Weight 1kg)), photographic image on page 101. The 11 engraved plates signed “Viset”, with artists embellishments are all in the latter part of the book after page 121. The list of contents are as detailed in the image below. A fine collection quality copy.
Table of contents
Bibliographical description courtesy of Patrick Kearney
GAUTIER, Théophile. – Lettres à la Présidente et galanteries poétiques. édition contenant soixante-cinq lettres inédites et le texte exact de la lettre d’Italie. Publiée avec une introduction et des notes par Helpey [Louis Perceau]. Accompagnée d’une étude sur la Présidente par Sylvestre Bonnard [Pierre Dufay]. Neuilly [Paris]: éditions du Musée secret [?Maurice Duflou],
1927. 8vo. 199 pp., pl. et portrait. photographiques deThéophile Gautier et de Mme Sabatier, pl. gr. à l’eauforte signées Viset [Luc Lafnet]. Limited to 465 lettered and numbered copies. [Bibliothèque Nationale (3 copies).
Scissors and Paste. Perceau List item 23
Binding
Original Cover
Limitation
Frontis
Sample Text
Mme Sabatier
Letttres a la Presidente
The Illustrations by Viset
Viset 1
Viset 2
Viset 3
Viset 4
Viset 5
Viset 6
Viset 7
Viset 8
Viset 9
Viset 10
Viset 11
Preserved spine