La France à travers les Ballades françaises — ensemble dédié à Jules Riollot ...
This exceptional ensemble of works by Paul Fort, from the collection La France à travers les Ballades françaises, serves as an intimate monument to the friendship between the poet and bibliophile Jules Riollot. Printed by the renowned typographer Armand Jules Klein, these 'hors commerce' first editions embody the revival of French lyricism in a luxurious, private setting. Each volume is enriched with original contributions from leading artists such as Gino Severini and Ignacio Zuloaga, seamlessly blending text and image. The inclusion of handwritten poems and personal dedications elevates these copies to unique literary archives. For the collector, this represents a rare opportunity to acquire the heart of Fort’s poetic universe. The ensemble reflects the sophisticated aesthetic of the interwar period, where fine press printing and poetry formed an inseparable bond.
Quantity
Fort, Paul
Severini Gino
Girieud Pierre
La France à travers les Ballades françaises — ensemble dédié à Jules Riollot (6 vols.)
1930 | Parijs | Armand Jules Klein
This ensemble is a rare testimony to the synergy between poetry, visual arts, and friendship in 1930s Paris. The combination of luxury typography, master illustrations, and unique manuscripts makes it a museum-quality collection. It is an indispensable acquisition for any serious collector of French bibliophile books.
This exceptional ensemble of works by Paul Fort, from the collection La France à travers les Ballades françaises, serves as an intimate monument to the friendship between the poet and bibliophile Jules Riollot. Printed by the renowned typographer Armand Jules Klein, these 'hors commerce' first editions embody the revival of French lyricism in a luxurious, private setting. Each volume is enriched with original contributions from leading artists such as Gino Severini and Ignacio Zuloaga, seamlessly blending text and image. The inclusion of handwritten poems and personal dedications elevates these copies to unique literary archives. For the collector, this represents a rare opportunity to acquire the heart of Fort’s poetic universe. The ensemble reflects the sophisticated aesthetic of the interwar period, where fine press printing and poetry formed an inseparable bond.
€1,450
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-4 (Quarto) approx. 25 × 32 cm
Edition Particulars
Exceptional ensemble of 6 works, specially printed for Jules Riollot, enriched with autograph dedications and handwritten poems.
Print Run
200
Copy Number
Ex. Jules Riollot
Paper
Vergé d'Arches à la forme
Inscription
Envoi
1
Edition Particulars:
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.
1
Print Run:
Condition Report:
1
Copy Number:
Condition Report:
1
Paper:
Condition Report:
1
Signed:
Condition Report:
Product DETAIL
The collection features various titles including Contes de ma sœur l'Oie and L'amour, enfant de Bohème, which form the core of Fort’s 'ballades'. The texts are a synthesis of folk tradition, fairytale elements, and historical reflections on French identity. Fort employs a unique rhythmic prose that blurs the line between poetry and narrative. In these specific editions, figures such as Merlin the Enchanter and Richard the Lionheart come to life within a playful literary setting. The themes range from melancholic reflections to joyful hymns to life. It is a tribute to the 'vieille France' and its literary heritage. The series acts as a lyrical journey through the French spirit and landscapes.
Dorgelès, Roland · Dunoyer de Segonzac
La Boule de gui
This first edition brings together three war episodes omitted from Les Croix de bois: La Boule de gui, Permissionnaires, and Le Prisonnier bénévole, formerly titled L’Ennemi des vieux. Published in 1922, it is also the first illustrated issue of these texts. André Dunoyer de Segonzac accompanies Dorgelès’s front-line prose with 42 reproduced drawings and five original drypoints hors texte, including the frontispiece. His nervous, direct line closely matches the stories’ hard observation and comradeship. This copy, number 401 on tinted Lafuma paper, belongs to the regular yet still limited issue of 519 copies on this stock. Devauchelle’s exceptional artist’s binding translates trenches, crosses, and explosions into a forceful modern design, turning the volume into a distinctive bibliophile object.
Ill Book
€1,150
Crevel, René · Tchelitchew, Pavel
L’esprit contre la raison
L’esprit contre la raison is a brief, vehement text from the heart of French Surrealism. René Crevel writes here not as a systematic philosopher, but as a polemicist intent on disturbing the order of reason, morality and bourgeois clarity. The book was published in 1927 by Les Cahiers du Sud, a review and publishing circle receptive to literary experiment beyond the Parisian centre. Pavel Tchelitchew’s frontispiece portrait gives the volume a strong visual presence and links Crevel’s voice to the cosmopolitan artistic world of the 1920s. In its original wrappers, the copy preserves the sober, nervous materiality of a text that reads more like an assault than a treatise. Its status as a review copy also marks it as a book meant to move through the literary networks of its moment.
Ill Book
€280
Artaud, Antonin · Masson, André
Le Pèse-Nerfs suivi des Fragments d’un Journal d’Enfer
With Le Pèse-Nerfs followed by Fragments d’un Journal d’Enfer, Antonin Artaud emerges in 1927 as a writer of inner derangement. This early edition was published in Marseille by Les Cahiers du Sud as the fifth title in the Critique series. It belongs among the first books in which Artaud’s broken, nervous and visionary voice appears in full force. The text moves between prose, note, incantation and self-investigation. André Masson’s frontispiece places the work in direct proximity to the Surrealist milieu. As a Lafuma copy, numbered 14 of 321, this edition carries both literary and bibliographical importance.
Ill Book
€2,100
Orlan, Pierre Mac · Grosz, Georges
Port d’eaux mortes
Port d’eaux mortes is a particularly strong encounter between Pierre Mac Orlan’s literary world and the incisive visual language of Georges Grosz. Published in 1926 by Au Sans Pareil, it belongs to an interwar catalogue marked by modernity and bibliophilic daring. Mac Orlan’s imagination of ports, marginal lives and moral twilight is here set against Grosz’s nervous, satirical and metropolitan graphic art. The eight original lithographs make the volume more than an illustrated novel: it is a fully fledged modernist artist’s book. This copy, number 615, is one of 1000 on vélin Lafuma de Voiron within a total edition of 1260 copies. For The Hidden Page, its appeal is clear: a numbered original edition with original prints by a key figure of Berlin Dada and Neue Sachlichkeit.
