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Les chevaliers de la table ronde. 

SKU LESC-005
Price

€1,150.00

Jean Cocteau’s *Les chevaliers de la table ronde* is his Arthurian three-act play, published in 1937 by Gallimard. Here the Round Table myth is reframed through crystalline dialogue and an oneiric sense of staging. The NRF original edition bears a frontispiece “after Cocteau”, signalling the author’s double gift as draughtsman and playwright. This copy is from the tête de tirage on vélin pur fil, numbered 27 of only 40. Generous margins and quiet typography heighten the ritual clarity of the text. Preserved in mint state, it retains the tactile luxury of Parisian interwar printing. For the bibliophile, it fuses literary invention, fine paper, and a discreet artist’s touch.

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Les chevaliers de la table ronde. 
1937 | Paris | Gallimard (NRF)
A rare head-of-issue in exceptional condition, uniting text, drawing and the art of printing.

Jean Cocteau’s *Les chevaliers de la table ronde* is his Arthurian three-act play, published in 1937 by Gallimard. Here the Round Table myth is reframed through crystalline dialogue and an oneiric sense of staging. The NRF original edition bears a frontispiece “after Cocteau”, signalling the author’s double gift as draughtsman and playwright. This copy is from the tête de tirage on vélin pur fil, numbered 27 of only 40. Generous margins and quiet typography heighten the ritual clarity of the text. Preserved in mint state, it retains the tactile luxury of Parisian interwar printing. For the bibliophile, it fuses literary invention, fine paper, and a discreet artist’s touch.

€1,150
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-12 (Duodecimo) approx. 17 × 22 cm
Edition Particulars
One of 40 copies on vélin pur fil, numbered 27; with a frontispiece “after Cocteau”.
Print Run
40
Copy Number
No. 27
Paper
vélin pur fil
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

Across three acts Cocteau sets Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot in a mesh of loyalty and betrayal. The language is taut and lucid, with irony pricking ceremony. Ritual tableaux alternate with short, nervy exchanges. Magic, prophecy and stage machinery frame a drama where desire collides with chivalric honour. The courtly code is tested against a modern conscience. The legend emerges as vulnerable, and human.

Une aventure méthodique
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.

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Sombre printemps. Traduit de l’allemand par Ruth Henry et Robert Valançay.
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.

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This spectacular bibliophile edition of *Le Cœur à gaz* merges poetry and avant-garde theatre in a visually striking object. Illustrated with twelve lithographs by Sonia Delaunay, including seven full-page plates, it showcases the collaboration between Dadaist poet Tristan Tzara and modernist artist Delaunay. The prints are based on her 1923 costume designs, evoking the radical spirit of the time.

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Studies & Dossiers
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The ‘destroyed’ copies of La lampe dans l’horloge

Books thrive on rumours. This is the story of a first issue Breton ‘made disappear’—and the copies that persisted.

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