MARDRUS (Jacques-Charles).
Charming story of the teenage girl Sugar of love. Great unpublished oriental tale. Paris, F.-L. Schmied, 1927. In-4, eggplant morocco decorated with a large lacquer embedded in the first plate, set of gilt fillets, smooth silent spine, lining of jade green morocco, triple gilt fillet, moire endpapers, gilt head, untrimmed, half morocco folder and slipcase (F.-L. S. / Laque de J. Dunand d'ap. F.-L. Schmied)
First edition.
Remarkable color illustration by François-Louis Schmied after Gustave Miklos.
The line of the plates was engraved on wood, and the painting was executed, according to the originals, in the workshops of Jean Dunand.
This illustration includes an illustrated cover, a frontispiece, 6 full-page figures, a text border, and numerous colored and gilded woodcuts: horizontal bands, most of them at the head, ornate lettering or small vignettes, and small vertical bands.
This edition was entirely realized by F.-L. Schmied, who designed the typography and printed it on his presses.
Unique edition at 25 copies on japon, signed by Schmied.
Artist's copy, neither justified nor signed, with numerous woodcuts enhanced with gouache, illuminated and lacquered in Dunand's workshops, enriched with 7 original gouaches, 12 pages of model with test painting with metals and lacquering, and 30 pages refused by the workshop. Some compositions have remarks painted in the margins.
It also contains the triptych in double proof: a black proof and a color proof with remarks enhanced with gouache.
Bound with a lacquer by Jean Dunand executed after a drawing by François-Louis Schmied, representing Sucre d'Amour standing out on a star treated in eggshells.
Attached is a typed copy of a letter dated 1927 from Louis Barthou congratulating Schmied on the completion of his book: This time I burst with joy, gratitude and admiration. What a book! What a masterpiece! I did not believe that you could surpass yourself. And you rise to the top with a surety, an ease and a brilliance to which no artist can compare. [...] this new Sucre d'Amour is a fairy tale dream from which I come out thrilled for the third time, having seen it, reviewed it and trivia. You are a magician. And I admire you and I love you [...].
From the Jacques André library (ex-libris).
Attached: a triptych about 200 x 565 mm, matted, very nice proof printed in colours on japanese paper, lacquered in the workshops of Jean Dunand, in vivid colours (initially catalogued under n°87 of this sale)
