La Maison Philibert.

With an extra suite of plates & original watercolours. One of 50 copies with an extra suite of plates and a copper plate. This copy also includes a collection of original drawings from two other artists

Written by Jean Lorrain (born Paul Duval) and originally published in 1904, La Maison Philibert revolves around a Parisian brothel of the belle epoque. Although prostitution and debauchery was not an uncommon theme in fin de siecle literature, Lorrain had his own reputation for being particularly outrageous in both his writings and his real life escapades. The erotic novel is here illustrated with 30 etchings with a suite of additional four states by Courbouleix.

The second volume contains a large collection of drawings to illustrate the same work by two other artists. Carlo Farnetti (1892-1961), Neapolitan by birth, moved to Paris where he illustrated works by Zola, Baudelaire and Poe. He was later comissioned by Javal & Bordeaux to illustrate Les Cent Nouvelles but his drawings for La Maison Philibert were never published - making this collection of original drawings accordingly rare.

André Dignimont, a 'figure notable de Montmatre' was celebrated for perfectly capturing feminine beauty. The present volume contains a vast amount of proofs and signed drawings by Dignimont to illustrate an edition of La Maison Philibert that was published in 1925 by Collection des Arts.

Limited edition, one of 50 copies on japon impérial, with with an extra suite and a copper plate by Courbouleix and extra volume of original drawings by Carlo Farneti and Andre Dignimont; 4to (35 x 28 cm); text illustrated with 30 in-text colour etchings a la poupée and a suite with four additional states (first state, sans remarque, avec remarque en noir and avec remarque en sanguine) both with the original publisher's wrappers, vol. II with 90 signed colour drawings avec remarque by Carlo Farnetti to illustrate an unpublished edition of the work, 6 watercolours on thick paper signed by Dignimont, 27 drawings (mostly signed some hand-coloured) by the same, and over 100 proof sheets (in colour and black and white) after Dignimont also to illustrate a previously published edition of the work; both housed in modern maroon morocco boxes.