31 - BARBIER, George, and SCHWOB, Marcel. *Vies imaginaires*. Illustrations by George Barbier, woodcuts by Pierre Bouchet.

BARBIER, George, and SCHWOB, Marcel. *Vies imaginaires*. Illustrations by George Barbier, woodcuts by Pierre Bouchet. A landmark in Art Deco illustrated books, featuring 88 compositions by George Barbier woodcut by Pierre Bouchet, edited by François-Louis Schmied, and printed in a limited edition of only 120 copies on Rives vellum. Paris, Le Livre Contemporain, 1929. In-4 (280 x 240 mm), loose-leaf, hardcover with full-color and gold-leaf decoration, in a slipcase and case. XI and 179 pp. 88 color woodcuts, including the frontispiece and 12 insert illustrations, two on the cover, as well as headbands, initials, and tailpieces. Cover very slightly browned with a very slightly creased corner; slight scuffing on the title and publisher’s labels on the spine of the slipcase. A remarkable illustrated edition featuring 88 color compositions by Georges Barbier, wood-engraved by Pierre Bouchet. Limited edition of 120 copies on Rives vellum; this is no. 17, printed for the industrialist and merchant Herni Hussenot Desenonges (1889–1968), a bibliophile and member of the Société du Livre contemporain. First published in 1896, this collection of “imaginary lives” brings to life, with haunting poetry, twenty-two extraordinary, marginal, or tragic destinies. From the fervor of Antiquity—with Empedocles, Erostratus, Crates, Septima, Lucretius, Clodia, and Petronius—the book glides toward the shadows of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance alongside Sufrah, Frate Dolcino, Cecco Angiolieri, Paolo Uccello, Nicolas Loyseleur, Katherine the Lace-Maker, Pocahontas, Cyril Tourneur, and Gabriel Spenser. Finally, the high seas and modernity unfold their legends of gold and blood through the privateers and pirates Sir Richard Grenville, Captain Kid, Walter Kennedy, and Stede Bonnet, before fading into the clinical darkness of the murderers Burke and Hare and the mystery of the Man in the Iron Mask. The combination of the refinement of Barbier’s compositions and Pierre Bouchet’s technical mastery makes this edition—initiated and orchestrated by François-Louis Schmied—one of the most sought-after masterpieces of illustrated books from the Art Deco period. From the library of Jean-Claude Chalanson, a passionate collector of illustrated books from the Art Deco period (ex-libris). A copy in excellent condition, preserved in a slipcase and a well-made case.