[DRANER] Ludovic HALÉVY - The Cardinal Family. - Lot 130

Lot n° 130
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600 - 800 EUR
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Result : 1 200EUR
[DRANER] Ludovic HALÉVY - The Cardinal Family. - Lot 130
[DRANER] Ludovic HALÉVY - The Cardinal Family. Paris, Calmann Lévy, 1883. In-8° : [4], 210, [2] pp. Contemporary havana morocco, boards decorated with a double framing of three gilt fillets with intersecting rhombus on the inner frame with small rose and cupid gilt on the corners, spine ribbed and decorated with the same cupid gilt with a pair of birds, comb paper lining bordered with a large gilt lace, same paper endpapers, witnesses cons. In a percaline slipcase. Minor rubbing to spine ends, but otherwise a fine copy. Original edition with frontispiece and 8 chapter headings after Jules Massard. One of 200 numbered copies of the illustrated edition on Marais laid paper (no. 33). EXCEPTIONAL EXAMPLE HIGHLY ILLUMINATED BY DRANER, who signs under the word "Fin" on the last page. Each page (except the masthead, justification and title) is decorated with superb pen-and-ink, India ink and colored ink drawings and caricatures, most of them enhanced with watercolors. These often humorous, poetic and very colorful compositions fill the margins and play with the text. For example, on p. 32, a tear repaired with sticky paper is drawn across the page; on p. 184, a hilarious character points at a typographical typo; on p. 198, two men each pull a rope around part of a sentence, etc. Draner, pseud. of Jules Renard (1833-1926), a painter and caricaturist from Liège who settled in Paris, is best known for his military caricatures, which are well represented here, as are the allusions to the siege of Paris in 1871 (cf. p. 37 a.o.). Enriched on the flyleaves with 2 signed autographed letters: 1. from Draner to Paul de Luçay (?); 2. from L. Halévy to Draner, 10-10-1887: "you knew them [the characters of the Cardinal family], my dear Draner, for I recognize them; they are all strikingly similar in your delightful drawings. What grace, finesse and fantasy underneath all these pretty things! [...]". Prov. Ex-libris with the arms of Prince Albert de Ligne. Ref. Talvart & Place, VIII, 9; Vicaire, II, 500.
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