Henri BALESTA - Absinthe and absintheurs. - Lot 245

January 24, 2026 PUBLIC SALE: 10:00 am & 2:00 pm

NO EXTRA CHARGE FOR LIVE AUCTIONS

EXHIBITION : 17/1 > - 23/1 FROM 2PM TO 7PM. (Sundays included).

Mornings by appointment only

ADDRESS:

Rue Henri Marichal 24

1050 Ixelles

ATTENTION

For reasons beyond our control, no card payment terminal will be available on site. Unfortunately, we are unable to accept credit card payments at the time of sale or afterwards. We invite you to plan your payments in cash or to make a bank transfer directly from your computer or telephone.

COLLECTION OF LOTS:

Sale day after payment

Sunday 25/1 from 10:30 am to 6:30 pm

From Monday 26/9: by appointment only.

SALE PROGRAM:

In the morning at 10 am.

Postcards: 1 - 25

Imaging: 26 - 30

Documents & Old Papers: 31 - 44

Antique Books : 45 - 92

Medicine : 93 - 123

Science : 124 - 129

Genealogy : 130 - 144

Belgicana : 145 - 162

Varia : 163 - 166

Afternoon at 2 p.m.

Photography : 167 - 172

Antique prints : 173 - 193

Japanese & Chinese prints : 194 - 204

XXth century prints : 205 - 213

Applied arts: 214 - 215

Architecture : 216 - 228

Fine arts : 229 - 239

19th & 20th century literature : 240 - 250

"Around the Cat : 261 - 281

"Mars" Drawings & albums: 282 - 291

"André Stas collection: 292 - 505

Literary fools: 292 - 320

Pataphysics: 321 - 368

Surrealism, avant-gardes & others: 369 - 505

19th & 20th century illustrated editions: 506 - 528

Enfantina: 529 - 533

Topography: 534 - 542

Travel: 543 - 565

André Stas

André Stas's primal laugh came on November 19, 1949. Raised by devoutly religious parents, the little boy performs meritorious deeds and wins prizes for excellence under the aegis of the good Lord, but keeps his wits about him by escaping to a continent where his imaginary friend Armand is waiting for him. When he graduates with flying colors in Romance philology, his faculty dismisses him. He taught for a few years, then went off to see if he could find himself elsewhere.

Pataphysician, collagist, author, poet, visual artist, collector, illustrator, poster artist, cruciverbist and verbicrucist, André Stas chooses not to choose, and experiences all these lives in one. In the arborescence of the paths he traverses, the artist multiplies collaborations and friendships with Roland Topor, Marcel Mariën, Fernando Arrabal and Louis Scutenaire, Tom Gutt and his gang, Noel Godin and Jean-Pierre Verheggen, Odette and André Blavier, Guy Jungblut, Michel Antaki, Jean-Bernard Pouy, Franz Bartelt, Yak Rivais and Nadine Monfils, Amiral Galopin, Xavier Canonne, Jean-Marie Decheneux, Alain de Wasseige, and many others.

A free electron on the Belgian surrealist and counter-cultural scene, he became a mainstay (and not just at the counter) of the Cirque Divers in Liège. He designs and organizes madcap exhibitions at this mecca of irreverence and joyful nonsense, a breeding ground for subversion, and churns out heaps of literary chronicles under the pseudonym La Stas Academy, which surfs the vogue.

Co-founder of several painting collectives, including Frais d'Orifices and the Po$t-Zozo$, he plays Sid Vicious in Terril, a punk band for which he writes scurrilous songs, is a member of the RTBF Radio Titanic team, and in 2005 was appointed Regent of the Travaux Pratiques d'Art, Regent des Travaux Pratiques d'Aliénation Mentale au tout Haut Collège de 'Pataphysique, and in 2009 received the Grand Prix de l'humour noir Xavier Forneret for his faux noir novel Entre les poires et les faux mages, published by Editions des Cendres. He loves differentiated art, is infatuated with literary madmen, and constantly ricochets between visual and verbal language, between collages and aphorisms, crisp words and licentious images. He was a fan of Ubu, a fan of Alice and a fan of Zazie throughout his life.

A prolific collagist, André Stas has thrown hundreds of images into the mix of humor, darkness, pornography, misappropriation, blasphemy and poetry, described by Jacques Lizène as "free illuminations".

Having burned his green candle at both ends, "Dédé" left us in 2023, at the age of 73.

After having sheltered numerous archives from the insults of time, this sale of part of André Stas's library to Evelyne and Alain Morel de Westgaver is intended to perpetuate the interest and study of the subjects, both serious and whacky, that were so close to his heart. These books have been consulted, read, reread and devoured. While some are as good as new, damaged dust jackets, yellowed pages, worn bindings, dull corners and creased edges are also, here and there, part of the lot.

An exhibition will be held shortly at the Espace d'Art Le Neuf in Orp-Jauche.

The sale and exhibition are part of the same twofold desire to circulate the tools of knowledge of a man as unique as he is unclassifiable, and to oxygenate his artistic gesture, which has never been associated with museum cesspools or mothballs.

Hurrah! Long live Father Ubu and Professor Stas!

Véronique Stas

GENERAL CONDITIONS OF SALE

The sale shall be carried out by the bailiff H. HELLEBAUT, who shall settle, at his sole discretion and without appeal, any dispute that may arise concerning the bids during the sale.

Participation in the auction shall entail the unconditional acceptance of the following terms and conditions of sale:

1. The buyer is the person who is awarded the lot. He shall provide the Auction House with all information such as name, address, bank details, copies of identity card or passport, etc.

2. The buyer shall be deemed to be acting in his own name and on his own behalf with regard to the Auction House, even for lots that he has acquired as a proxy.

3. The order of the numbers shall be followed.

4. The buyer shall be bound by the auction. However, the Auction House shall always be at liberty to refuse the auction, even after the end thereof, without having to give reasons for its decision.

5. The buyer may participate in the auction by leaving a written purchase order, or by telephone or electronic means, at least one day before the sale. In the latter case, he must confirm his participation by letter or e-mail and provide any information that may be required by the Auction House. The Auction House shall take the utmost care of the orders received in this way. It may not however be held liable for any omission of orders received in this way. Furthermore, the Auction House cannot be held liable for any errors made by the buyer in indicating the lot number, the telephone number where he can be reached, his e-mail address, or for any problems in establishing the communication. In case of equal bids, priority shall always be given to the buyers present at the public auction.

6. The buyer shall be irrefutably presumed to have been able to appraise the item sold in person during the exhibition prior to the auction session, even if he participates in the auction by means of remote communication or by leaving a written purchase order.

7. The indications or descriptions in writing stemming from the Auction House must be considered for information only that can in no way render the Auction House liable. The Auction House shall not guarantee the authenticity, attribution, date, age, nature, condition, origin, etc. of an object in any respect. It shall always be the buyer's responsibility to ascertain the nature and condition of an object. Unless otherwise stated, lots consisting of 2 or more titles, series, periodicals or works marked "n.c." or "sold WAF" are not collated and will not be taken back. No items may be examined during the sale.

8. The buyer shall acquire ownership of the goods only after full and final payment of the price and ancillary charges. He can only receive delivery when this payment has become final. However, the risks shall be fully transferred to the buyer when the good are knocked down.

9. The buyer shall pay the amount of the winning bid plus a 25% commission, including VAT, within three working days of the auction. Cash payments shall not be accepted above €3,000.00, within the limits provided by law. Only certified and guaranteed cheques shall be accepted for immediate delivery. Payment can also be made by bank transfer and credit or debit cards. Payments, denominated in euros, are always to be made to the Auction House.

10. Pursuant to the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act of 30 June 1994, the buyer shall, where applicable, be liable to pay also a resale fee (4%) for original works of art by artists who died less than 70 years ago, for items auctioned for €2,000 or more, for the benefit of the artists and authors of the works sold, in addition to the total sale price of the item. This requirement shall remain in force even if the claim to these rights is made after the sale and removal of the lot, without any time limit. The Auction House shall not intervene in any dispute relating to the validity of the claim to resale fees or otherwise.

11. Any sum not paid when due shall automatically and without prior notice accrue interest on arrears at the rate of 1% per month. In addition, the amount of the invoice shall be increased by 15% (with a minimum of €65.00) by way of penalty clause. The Auction House moreover reserves the right to put back on sale the lots awarded but not paid for, whereby buyer who remains in default of payment shall then also be held liable for the difference between his auction bid and the auction price at the time of the resale.

12. The buyer shall be required to collect his lot from the head office of the Auction House, 24 Rue Henri Marichal, 1050 Brussels, within three working days of the auction. Packaging, handling and transport shall always be at the expense and risk of the buyer.

13. After the collection period, the Auction House reserves the right, without prior notice, either to put the lots that have been paid for but not collected back on sale, or to have them transferred to storage at the expense and risk of the buyer, or to claim a sum of €10.00 per lot and per day of delay.

14 Personal data shall be processed solely by the Auction House. They shall not be passed on to third parties. The data controller shall be Morel de Westgaver…., 24 Rue Henri Marichal, CBE 0832157952. The persons having access to these data shall be the staff members of the Auction House. Pursuant to the Personal Data Protection Act of 8 December 1992, the buyer shall have the right to access data concerning him, and to have them rectified or deleted. His personal data shall be collected for the purposes of customer management of the Auction House, including its direct marketing (e.g. announcements of future sales and events that it organizes). The buyer shall have the right to oppose the use of his data for direct marketing purposes, at any time, free of charge and upon simple request.

15. Any dispute that may arise between the parties shall be settled exclusively in accordance with Belgian law. It shall be settled exclusively by the French-speaking courts of the judicial district of Brussels and, if necessary, by the Justice of the Peace of Ixelles.

16. The Belgian law dated 15/08/2020 transposes European Directives 2018/843 and 2015/849, whose aim is to prevent the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or the financing of terrorism. This law requires all players in the arts and antiques businesses, including auction houses, to request and register the identity of all parties involved in any transaction whose value is €10,000 or more. If a party concerned is a company, we are also required to request information on the company statutes or the identity of the ultimate beneficiary. These data remain exclusively in the possession of the auction house, and will be processed in strict compliance with the General Data Protection legislation.

17. Except in the case of gross and intentional misconduct or fraud on the part of the Auction House, the latter may under no circumstances be held liable, directly or indirectly, for any type of damage, which is in any way the consequence of access to and/or use of the Auction House services by the buyer. This shall be limited to the amount of the commission received in all cases where the Auction House could be held liable for any reason whatsoever.

18. Unless expressly waived in writing, these general terms and conditions shall take precedence over any terms and conditions of the buyer.