303 - MÉRIMÉE, Prosper. LUNOIS, Alexandre.

MÉRIMÉE, Prosper. LUNOIS, Alexandre. Mateo Falcone. Paris, L. Conquet, L. Carteret & Co., 1906. Folio (36 x 25 cm), (3) folios, 41 pages, (1) folio. Contemporary navy-blue morocco leather, ribbed spine, author’s name and title in gold lettering, cold-stamped fillet decorations on the edges, endpapers lined with green morocco leather and framed by a mosaic foliage design accented with a gold fillet, woven silk on the endpapers, gilt edges, original cover preserved, in a marbled slipcase [Marius Michel] (spine faded, slipcase very slightly scuffed). Description: A very fine copy, elegantly prepared by Marius Michel in a mosaic-bound, lined morocco binding. Printed in an edition of 250 copies, all on white vellum. The illustrations consist of 16 in-text vignettes, including a small medallion portrait on the title page, woodcuts by Froment, Lahure, and Bauche after Alexandre Lunois. A fine copy printed on Rives vellum paper, enhanced with a sketch of a large-format initial, a watercolor drawing, a bound sequence, and 29 drawings bound at the end. “A beautiful, highly regarded publication. One of Lunois’s finest works, in which he successfully captured the dramatic essence of Mérimée’s beautiful and poignant short story” (Carteret). Preface by Maurice Tourneux.