87 - SEGALEN (VICTOR)

SEGALEN (VICTOR) Steles. Peking, Pei-T'ang Press, 1914. In-8 volume in folio (288 x 142 mm), accordion-bound, with a cream-colored paper cover (stitched) featuring a title label printed in French in the Chinese style, beneath wooden slats engraved with the title in Chinese and French, held in place by yellow laces. 7 full-page reproductions of Chinese calligraphy, Chinese ideograms in the text, 3 Chinese seals in red ink. Second edition, partly original. Print run of 640 copies; no. 509 of 570 on felted laid paper. First commercial edition, expanded to include 16 “steles” and a detailed explanation of the layout, which had not appeared in the rare first edition of 1912. “The ‘stele’ form adopted arose from a striking analogy between the stone tablets scattered throughout China and the ‘short, dense prose pieces’ he proposed to write even before he had seen them. “ (In French in the text, no. 340).