Alphonse Daudet

Lettres de mon moulin [Letters from My Windmill]

Angoulême: Chez Jean Emery, Editions d'Art, 1948. Very Good / Very Good. Item #9771

Angoulême: Chez Jean Emery, Editions d'Art "L’Heptaméron," 1948. First Thus: Limited Edition of 2000 numbered copies of which this is No. 572. Octavo (22x16x1.5cm); 237pp. Fifteen full-page lithographic illustrations in color, with additional spot-color "ornementation" (orthographe française, chers lecteurs), all by P.-J. Emery. Jacket is in hand-made laid linen paper ("un pur fil de lin blanc à la main"), retaining original glassine. Broché volume bound in sewn gatherings within nude card wrappers. Entirely in French.

Glassine is browned on spine with lacuna over spine and publisher's emblem. Front of glassine has triangular closed tear, and folded edges show a few losses. Some edge- and spine-browning to jacket itself, where light forced its way through the glassine. Glassine and jacket have done their tandem job, as the textblock is nearly pristine. Our photos show the volume both without and with the glassine.

Daudet's classic 1869 collection of short stories of provincial French life is here illustrated with pastel lithographs, and ornamented with chapter titles, framed initials, and decorative vignettes in carmine red. About P.-J. Emery, the illustrator with a truly charming talent, we have discovered nothing. Our keen French detective sense suggests a connection to the publisher, Jean Emery.

Price: $150.00