GREY (Roch) (baronne Hélène d'OETTINGEN, dite).

Midnight horses. Epic. Cannes and Paris, Aux bons soins du Degré Quarante et un, Iliazd, 1956. Small folio, midnight blue morocco decorated on the boards with small stars pushed in cold on a succession of twenty-six horizontal rods of the same morocco and in relief, mosaicked on the fields of fine strips of blue and yellow rhodoïd, smooth spine bearing the title pushed in cold, lining and endpapers of black Canson paper, cover of ochre Auvergne paper and filled cover in parchment, untrimmed, half morocco folder with band, case (Mercher 1963). Cramer, n°73. First edition of this epic poem written by the baroness Hélène d'Oettingen (1887-1950) under the pseudonym of Roch Grey. A drypoint on the parchment cover and 12 original burins by Pablo Picasso representing silhouettes of horses in different attitudes. Edition at 68 copies numbered and signed by the artist and the publisher, this one of 52 on old japon for subscribers. A perfect copy, in an amazing binding by Mercher. Following the inclination of the volume, and thanks to the contrasts of colors between the morocco and the rhodoïd strips, one can guess a moonlight in the night on the boards, probably a reference to the author's text and in particular to this passage : Midnight horses galloping! And it is still a moonlight [...]. O horses of midnight, your eyes reflect the sapphires of the night sky [...], the diamond of your shoes bursts in gold under your hooves.