296 - VERHAEREN, Émile, and MAILLOL, Aristide. *Belle chair*. Eleven unpublished poems.

VERHAEREN, Émile, and MAILLOL, Aristide. *Belle chair*. Eleven unpublished poems. First edition marking the convergence of the Belgian poet’s erotic verse and the painter-sculptor’s sensual voluptuousness. One of 50 deluxe copies on Montval paper, in a full binding signed by Maylander. Paris, Edouard Pelletan, 1931. In-4, full midnight blue coarse-grained morocco, spine with four raised bands, wide inner border adorned with a pattern of gold fillets, brick-red moiré silk linings and endpapers, double endpapers, original blank covers and spine preserved, gilt edges, edged slipcase. Binding signed by E. Maylander. 34 pp., 3 woodcuts and 12 lithographs. Spine sun-faded, slight rubbing on the raised bands, caps, and edges. First edition illustrated with 12 lithographs and 3 original woodcuts by Aristide Maillol. Limited edition of 255 copies; this one is one of 50 numbered “Montval à la cuve” (no. 41). A superb artistic collaboration from the interwar period, bringing together the posthumous erotic poetry of Émile Verhaeren (1855–1916) and the sculptural style of Aristide Maillol (1861–1944). A beautiful copy in a Jansenist binding by Émile Maylander.