30 Chantefables
€520.00
Exceptionally scarce FIRST EDITION of Desnos’s animal rhymes, meant “to sing to any tune.” Issued by Gründ in 1944 under occupation, the booklet breathes the light, stubborn freedom Desnos kept to the end. Each page bears a lively colour lithograph by Olga Kowalewski; the stapled board construction, dictated by austerity, suits its playbook nature. The blend of Surrealist whimsy and childlike clarity makes a moving document. For collectors it unites wartime stock, children’s poetry with an avant-garde undercurrent, and exemplary colour work.
Quantity
Desnos, Robert
Kowalewski, Olga
30 Chantefables
1944 | Paris | Gründ
A small triumph of lightness against circumstance: rare, clean and still singable.
Exceptionally scarce FIRST EDITION of Desnos’s animal rhymes, meant “to sing to any tune.” Issued by Gründ in 1944 under occupation, the booklet breathes the light, stubborn freedom Desnos kept to the end. Each page bears a lively colour lithograph by Olga Kowalewski; the stapled board construction, dictated by austerity, suits its playbook nature. The blend of Surrealist whimsy and childlike clarity makes a moving document. For collectors it unites wartime stock, children’s poetry with an avant-garde undercurrent, and exemplary colour work.
€520
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-8 (Octavo) approx. 20 × 26 cm
Paper
papier de guerre; lithographies couleur
1
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We welcome private inquiries, collaborations with institutions, and acquisition requests. Each message is treated with discretion and respect. We welcome private inquiries, collaborations with institutions, and acquisition requests.
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Product DETAIL
Thirty singable fables—beasts and everyday gestures—each a compact game of refrain and surprise. Reading invites performance: singing, humming, variation. The tone is mischievous yet exact, a gentle absurdity that takes the child seriously. Together they make a miniature menagerie where rhythm brightens the world. The lithographs answer with simple line and bold colour.
Reverdy, Pierre · Braque, Georges
Une aventure méthodique
*Une aventure méthodique* brings together Pierre Reverdy’s concentrated poetic prose and Georges Braque’s austere visual language. It belongs among the major post-war French livres d’artiste, where text, lithography and typography meet as equal forces. Braque contributed 27 original lithographs, supplemented by colour reproductions after his paintings, giving the volume both intimacy and monumentality. Printed by Mourlot, the celebrated Paris lithographic workshop, the book has exceptional technical refinement. This copy, on vélin d’Arches and signed by both author and artist, preserves a rare encounter between modern poetry and pictorial invention.
Ill Book
€4,850
Roy, Claude · Picasso, Pablo
La guerre et la paix
*La guerre et la paix*, published in 1954, is a monumental overview of Pablo Picasso's work for the Vallauris chapel, accompanied by Claude Roy's text. This edition by Cercle d’Art forms an essential synthesis of Picasso’s post-war humanism and his resistance to the horrors of conflict. The book contains, alongside numerous reproductions, original lithographs that expose the dynamics of his artistic process. For the bibliophile, this work is a crucial testimony to the dialogue between word and image in the early 1950s.
Ill Book
€850
Zürn, Unica · Bellmer, Hans
Sombre printemps. Traduit de l’allemand par Ruth Henry et Robert Valançay.
This large and sumptuous edition of Sombre printemps brings together one of Unica Zürn’s most haunting texts and an original burin frontispiece by Hans Bellmer. Issued by Pierre Belfond as the French translation of Dunkler Frühling, it appeared when Zürn’s name had become inseparable from Bellmer’s. That proximity is not merely biographical here; it shapes the entire aura of the book, in which text and image seem to emerge from the same disturbed inner world. The deluxe issue, printed on vélin d’Arches and accompanied by an additional proof on japon nacré, gives the volume a distinctly bibliophilic status. Bellmer’s signed frontispiece does not simply decorate the text, but stands as a visual counterpoint to Zürn’s claustrophobic prose. The publication is all the more poignant for having followed so closely upon Zürn’s death, as though the book became both tribute and posthumous memorial. Within the Cahiers du Regard, it ranks among the most charged and desirable collaborations. For the collector, this copy unites literary intensity, surrealist resonance, and exceptional material refinement.
Ill Book
€1,400
Bouvier · Bellmer, Hans
Les Mystères du Confessionnal
A rare illustrated book that explores the decadence and sensual darkness of Catholicism. Hans Bellmer's engravings transform Bouvier's texts into a graphic exploration of forbidden desires. This work, situated at the intersection of literature and art, reveals a unique symbiosis between the provocative texts on the dark side of religion and Bellmer's unsettling, surrealist aesthetic. Bellmer's nine original burin engravings unveil a world of physical and psychological ambiguity and attest to his mastery as a printmaker and his fascination with the human form in all its distortions. The book is a testament to the subversive power of the illustrated edition and the way art and literature can reinforce each other to create an unforgettable statement.
