357 - SCHMIED (François Louis).

SCHMIED (François Louis). Peau-Brune. From St-Nazaire to La Ciotat. Lyon, Société des XXX de Lyon, 1931. 2 volumes, large quarto, green morocco, large personalized decoration in blue and silver palladium adorning the covers, plain spine, gray morocco lining adorned with the same decoration, beige moiré endpapers, and (for the volume of illustrations:) green half-morocco with a band, double silver fillet bordering the covers, original cover preserved, edges gilt on endpapers, green half-morocco sleeves with a band, slipcases (Marot-Rodde). Two large plates and 119 color vignettes and headpieces, woodcuts by François-Louis SCHMIED. Printed in an edition of 135 copies on Arches vellum; this copy (No. 22) was printed for Mr. William Vincens Bouguereau, ONE OF THE XXX NAMED SUBSCRIBERS, containing, unbound: • TWO ADDITIONAL SERIES OF ILLUSTRATIONS, including one in color, • A SET OF “PRINT STATES” FROM THE SECOND PLATE, “The Bird Folds Its Wings,” and • AN EARLY “Presentations” VERSION, with a preface by the author. A UNIQUE, ENRICHED COPY featuring THIRTEEN ORIGINAL, SIGNED WATERCOLORS—those dated August 25, 26, 27, and September 8, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, September 28 (on five boards mounted on a miter joint). Logbook of the “Peau-brune,” a square-rigged schooner on which Schmied, accompanied by Jean Dunand and his daughter “Zouzou,” undertook a cruise from Saint-Nazaire to La Ciotat. He planned to sail around the world at the expense of a group of bibliophiles to bring back illustrations for a forthcoming book. In his “Presentations,” Schmied shares part of his artistic legacy: “[Typography and illustration] strive to become one, according to my gentle obsession […] Print typefaces are structural elements that have been extensively studied and skillfully crafted; it is inappropriate to adorn them with crude graphics […] Perhaps I will be criticized for the apparent imbalance of my pages? Imbalance: no. Asymmetry: certainly, and I have a taste for it. It has always seemed to me that symmetry reflects a laziness of the mind that is content to invent only half—or even a quarter—of a work. Asymmetry demands a more sustained and varied effort […]” Ex-libris by W. Vincens Bouguereau. CICHOCKA, Gustave Miklos. A Hidden Masterpiece, L25 (which reproduces some of Miklos’s preparatory sketches for this work).