VERLAINE (Paul), YSEUX SR. DE THIERRY-SIMIER [Binder] & CHIMOT (Édouard)

Parallelement

THE LAST GASP OF THE 'ROARING TWENTIES'

One of 198 copies, this number 23, being one of 23 copies printed on japon reserved for the artist and friends, with each plate in the first state, the second state with remarques, the second state with remarques printed in red, and the final state, and in addition the dossier complet d’une planche for ‘L’impenitent’, including original copperplate. 23 etchings by Eduard Chimot, some with additional hand-colouring, in multiple states as above, in addition the dossier complet containing 2 pages of original pencil sketch studies of Verlaine, original pencil design for L’impenitent on glassine, proofs of the plate in nine states signed and with the artist’s manuscript notes, and original copperplate, additional and seemingly unrelated hand-coloured etching printed on vellum and signed by Chimot loosely tipped in. Large 4to., 34 x 26cm, [10] 148pp (with 3 copies of each plate additionally interleaved) [4], [13] plates. Finely bound by Yseux Sr. de Thierry-Simier in full black crushed goatskin, covers with three sided panel formed of interlaced gilt circles, spine in gilt panels with continued circle design and onlay face after Chimot, lettered in gilt, t.e.g., turn-ins with 7 gilt rules, with binders signature stamp to upper turn-in, front board with recessed original copperplate, floral silk endpapers, with goatskin edged marbled paper slipcase. Paris, Société Nouvelle des Éditions d’Art Devambez, 1931.

£4,000.00

Very good, binding fine, light to moderate foxing throughout.

Appointed as artistic director of Les Éditions d’Art Devambez in 1923, Édouard Chimot (1880 - 1958) was at the forefront of the vogue for extravagantly produced livres d’art and livres d’artiste which gripped Paris throughout the 1920s. His own style of late-Symbolist nudes was characterised by depictions of those who were “subject to their deadly and delicious passions” (André Warnod), and he felt a particular affinity for Decadent authors such as Baudelaire and Verlaine, whose haunting texts his etchings so fittingly illustrated. The Wall Street crash of 1929 proved that life imitated art and the passion for collecting expensive limited editions proved to be a deadly one. The market for luxury books collapsed, and the publication of Parallelement in 1931 was the end of Éditions d’Art Devambez; the last gasp of the roaring twenties.

Chimot never regained his position in the Parisian artistic and literary world. While his work slowly declined into puerile erotica, his place at the height of the glamorous world of Parisian publishing was almost entirely forgotten.

Stock No.
255611