9 - LOUŸS (Pierre).

LOUŸS (Pierre). The Woman and the Puppet. A Spanish Novel. Paris: Société du Mercure de France, 1898. — In-8, 235 x 156: frontispiece, 247 pp. (2 blank leaves at the end), printed cover. Lemon-colored morocco leather, continuous decoration along the lower edges of the covers and spine, consisting of two rectangular pieces of black morocco leather at the edges, bordered by wide gold bands, joined at the center by an hourglass motif of black and gray morocco, bordered by pointed gold fillets; title in capital letters in mosaic red morocco around the central motif on the front cover, framed by lemon morocco on the inside, adorned with a broad gold fillet, a thin black fillet, and two pieces of black morocco leather edged with two gold squares on the right and left edges; linings and endpapers of black moiré silk; double endpapers; untrimmed; original cover preserved; slipcase (René Kieffer - Pierre Legrain). First edition illustrated with a heliogravure reproduction of Goya’s *Pantin*. One of 20 copies on China paper (no. 8) from the reprinted large in-8 run reserved for the XX, signed by Pierre Louÿs on the colophon and featuring the frontispiece in two versions, on vellum and on China paper. A superb copy in a mosaic binding designed by Pierre Legrain and executed by René Kieffer. It was given in 1987 to Arsène Bonnafous Murat by Aurélie Colliard, on behalf of Jean Colliard. A letter from Aurélie is included with the copy. Spine slightly browned.