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GEORGICA. LES GEORGIQUES.
(Paris: Imprimerie nationale, [1944-] 1947). 464 x 344 mm. (18 1/4 x 13 1/2"). Two volumes. Translated by Michel de Marolles. No. VI OF 25 AUTHOR'S COPIES, from a total edition of 225.
SUPERB GRASS-GREEN MOROCCO BY GEORGES CRETTÉ (stamp-signed on front turn-in), covers dominated by a central sunburst formed by 16 triangular radiations of 10-14 gilt fillets, with heads of wheat (volume I) or grapes and leaves (volume II) tooled in black peeking through the rays, smooth spines with intersecting gilt fillets, vertical gilt lettering, emerald green suede doublures and endleaves, all edges gilt. Original paper wrappers bound in. Housed in leather lined, green morocco-trimmed chemises and matching morocco-lipped slipcases. With 119 etchings by Dunoyer de Segonzac, 20 of these vignettes, 99 full-page plates, and WITH TWO ORIGINAL DRAWINGS, one of these SIGNED, an original etching signed and numbered 18/50 on Japanese paper, AND A SUITE OF 25 ORIGINAL ETCHINGS preceded by an autograph title page reading: "XXV études pour Les Georgiques / A. Dunoyer de Segonzac / 31/50." With Latin text (in Garamond italic) and French text (in Garamond) on facing pages. The Artist and the Book 1860-1960 281; Liore et Cailler V, 11-13. For the binding: Garrigou, Georges Cretté 617; Exhibition: "La Reliure originale" (Original Binding), Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1959, no. 342; Duncan & De Bartha, Art Nouveau and Art Deco Bookbinding, p. 66. Occasional light foxing (as in almost all copies, due to storage conditions at the press), a couple of minute marginal stains, but A BEAUTIFUL SET, clean, fresh, and bright internally, with vast margins, and IN PRISTINE BINDINGS.
This imposing illustrated edition of Virgil's long poem devoted to the trials and triumphs of agriculture comes in bindings celebrating the sun that powers agriculture, created by an artisan whose "virtuosity as a gilder," says Duncan & De Bartha, "earned him the sobriquet 'maître des filets.'" One of the most prominent binders of his day, Georges Cretté (1893-1969) was a brilliant student at the Ecole Estienne, where he worked under Godefroy and Masset, and later was invited to join the firm of Henri Marius Michel, where he soon established himself as that famous workshop’s outstanding gilder. After World War I, he took over the day-to-day business, and succeeded Marius Michel as head of the firm upon the master's death in 1925. At first, Cretté adhered to the Art Nouveau floral designs that had characterized Marius Michel bindings, but as Duncan & De Bartha reports, "he gradually began to promote his own more traditional geometric style, which was built around compositions of gold and blind-tooled fillets." In the present example, his meticulously tooled, perfectly spaced gilt fillets create a sunburst of rays that make the blank space at center into a sun with 16 points. The black-tooled wheat and grape leaves beneath the rays are, by contrast, drawn in an open and easy style, seemingly doodled, rather than drawn, in a moment of idleness, but with great focus and technical skill. It is the perfect covering for the poet's examination of the tensions between man and nature, and the perilous life of the farmer, dependent on the whims of the weather gods. (From an anthropological perspective, the text also offers interesting information on viticulture, animal husbandry, and beekeeping in the first century B.C.) When our artist, the painter and etcher André Dunoyer de Segonzac (1884-1974), was approached by art dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard to illustrate a bibliophile's edition of a Colette work, Segonzac persuaded Vollard to allow him to do Virgil instead. He spent the next 15 years creating more than 100 etchings for the project, and in the process produced the present masterpiece. According to "The Artist & the Book," "his landscape has a classical, pastoral quality whose freshness is due to the immediacy of execution. Not only did Segonzac work directly on the copper from nature, but most of the plates were etched in a single biting of the acid, with additional tonal values achieved by drypoint, not by stopping out and re-biting. In addition, the plates were lightly inked and printed 'clean' to heighten the clarity of the impression." Liore and Callier's catalogue of Segonzac's work quotes the artist on this work: "If I chose the theme of the Georgics, it was to try to accompany with etchings the scenes of rural life that have remained almost the same since Antiquity. . . . I engraved all the plates in Les Georgiques before the marvelous spectacle of the countryside: the ploughing of wheat and vines, sowing, harvesting, grape-picking, bees . . . . For Chant III, devoted to livestock, I set up with my coppers in the pastures, among the herds of cows and oxen, engraving directly and striving to express their powerful and peaceful plastic beauty." One of the original etchings here shows an ox at the plough, its simple lines expressing both its calm and its straining effort. The 119 etchings that made the "final cut" for this edition are supplemented here by 25 studies done by the artist over the lengthy illustration process. The supplemental illustrations here and the sumptuous binding suggest this copy was prepared for, or at minimum bought by, an important patron. Since the publisher Vollard had died before the Virgil was ready for the press, Segonzac brought out the edition himself. The outstanding bindings here have happily been kept in original condition by their protective chemises. (ST21134)
Price: $27,500.00