133 - DEGAINE, Édouard and LOUŸS, Pierre. Poëtique. With four lithographs as inserts.

DEGAINE, Édouard and LOUŸS, Pierre. Poëtique. With four lithographs as inserts. Rare, out-of-print copy on old Japanese paper, containing a double set of Degaine’s lithographs. Paris, Éditions Briant-Robert, 1926. Small folio, paperback, beige cloth-covered binding printed in black and red, partially untrimmed. Unpaginated, 4 black lithographs by Édouard Degaine on Japanese paper, preserved in a slipcase. Cover faded, foxing. Superb illustrated edition featuring 4 black lithographs by Édouard Degaine, printed on a hand press by Marchizet and destroyed after the print run. Limited edition of 235 copies; this is one of the first 6 non-commercial copies (no. E) on antique Japanese paper cut to size (the second paper after the first on vellum), with an additional set of the 4 lithographs in brown, on antique Japanese paper cut to size. First published in 1916 in the *Mercure de France*, this text constitutes Pierre Louÿs’s aesthetic manifesto. The author of *Aphrodite* and *Chansons de Bilitis* advocates in it the worship of the Muse, silence, creative fervor, and absolute respect for the poetic Word. Édouard Degaine’s nearly abstract and cosmic lithographs make this edition a beautiful example of 1920s bibliophilia, at the crossroads of Art Deco and Surrealism. A complete copy with all its plates.