BRUGALLA (Emilio), JUVENAL & DE BECQUE (Maurice)

Satire Sur Les Femmes

A FINE ART DECO BINDING BY THE CATALAN MASTER

30 hand-coloured aquatints by Maurice de Becque. Number 71 of 250 copies, this being one of 200 on Rives. Small 4to., 26 x 19.5cm, [12] viii [6] 82pp [10]. Full crushed brown goatskin by Emilio Brugalla, covers with Art Deco design of alternating vertical and horizontal rules in gilt and brown inlay, central square of black and white onlay and inlay bordered on two sides with silver rules, corners with alternating orange and brown triangular onlay and inlay outlined in silver, upper cover titled in gilt, spine titled in gilt, turn-ins with double gilt rule around pattern of triangles tooled in black, brown silk moire endpapers with triangular pattern, binders gilt stamp ‘Brugalla 1931’ to upper turn-in, original covers bound in, with marbled paper slipcase. Paris, Editions de la Lampe d’Or, 1923.

£4,000.00

Very good, upper cover slightly rubbed towards top edge, slight darkening to covers in spots, foxing to early leaves.

A fine Art Deco binding by the master Catalan binder Emilio Brugalla. Initially trained at the Catalan Institute of Book Arts (Institut Català de les Arts del Llibre) and the Barcelona School of Arts, Crafts and Fine Arts (Escola d’Arts i Oficis i Belles Arts), in 1921 Brugalla was encouraged to study in Paris, where he worked under Alfred Chevalier, himself a former student of the great Marius-Michel. Returning to Barcelona, Brugalla achieved significant praise for his binding, in 1929 winning the grand prize at the Barcelona International Exposition; this lead to the establishment of own workshop, in 1931 and it is from then that the present binding dates. The influence of Brugalla’s time in Paris is clear, the elegant Art Deco style standing in striking contrast to Brugalla’s other historic binding styles, and it is a perfect match for Maurice de Becque’s illustrations.

In later years, Brugalla taught widely in the field of bookbinding, and was elected as an honorary member of the Designer Bookbinders in 1973.

Stock No.
255610