Album Lefèvre-Utile: LES CONTEMPORAINS CÉLÈBRES: Portraits, Authgraphes, Notices Biographiques Illustrées, Portraits Humoristiques des Célébrités Contemporaines: Première Série
Paris: Publications Octave Beauchamp, 1904. First Edition. Hardcover. Deluxe issue with with Cappiello plates and additional "notices biographiques"; indicated as "First Series" but not other series issued. Printed by G. de Malherbe: Paris on laid paper with "LU Nantes" watermark. Quarto: unpaginated with 28 full-page plates with tissue guards, halftone or photogravure portraits after photographs by Nadar, Pierre Petit, et al, with lithographic decorations in color after illustrations by Fraikin, Habert-Dys, Orazi, et al; 14 full-page plates with tissue guards, all color lithographs after caricatures by Leonetto Cappiello; and 28 textual vignettes, photo-engravings printed in red, after illustrations by Vogel. The half-title, title page, and copyright page are printed in red and black, with page ornaments and ornamental initials printed in red and black. In the publisher's deluxe gray-green variegated flat-weave cloth spine over solid beech wood boards with beveled edges, with a 2 3/4" cut-out with inset celluloid medallion featuring a molded portrait of Sarah Bernhardt, after an illustration by Alphonse Mucha, on the front panel. The front is framed by brown-stamped ruled borders, with brown-stamped titling and floral decorations against sky, with tan, rose, green, light green, and light blue hand coloring, while the rear panel is framed by brown-stamped borders, with brown stamped titling and stork and cathedral decorations, with tan, white, gray, yellow, and light blue hand coloring. The spine features light green-stamped ornamental bands and floral devices, and green-stamped titling. Top edge gilt, with olive coated endpapers adorned with an overall embossed swan pattern. An exquiste example. Provenance: from the Publishers' Bookbindings collection of Ellen K. Morris and Edward S. Levin. Item #80187
Price: $500.00