73 - BAUDELAIRE (Charles). *Les Fleurs du Mal*. Paris, Poulet-Malassis and De Broise, 1861. 12mo, red half-shagreen, spine with four raised bands decorated with gold fillets and dotted patterns in the compartments, marbled edges. (Contemporary binding).

BAUDELAIRE (Charles). *Les Fleurs du Mal*. Paris, Poulet-Malassis and De Broise, 1861. 12mo, red half-shagreen, spine with four raised bands decorated with gold fillets and dotted patterns in the compartments, marbled edges. (Contemporary binding). Second edition, expanded with 35 new poems. Baudelaire dedicated this new edition, like the first, of his “sickly flowers” to his friend Théophile Gautier, an impeccable poet and a consummate magician of French literature. Portrait of the author drawn and etched by Félix Bracquemond; this print is on a buff-colored background. It is accompanied by the extremely rare etching rejected for the frontispiece, depicting the seven deadly sins symbolized by seven plants, with a skeleton in the position of a crucified figure, composed by Bracquemond specifically for this edition. It is annotated in pen, most likely in the artist’s own hand: “2nd state and unfinished.” Print on thin laid paper, possibly a unique copy. This second state is by far the most successful when compared to the first state and the final (third) state. See Vte Lolié, October 9, 2018, where these two other states are reproduced on p. 34. COPY IN PERIOD CONDITION, VERY PURE.