Note hâtive à la gloire de Groethuysen
A concentrated tribute in which Ponge honours Groethuysen with the crisp cadence of his prose-poems. The production is distinctly bibliophile: a small issue on Chine paper and a custom binding by Leroux. The havana box calf and metallic-patterned boards lend a quiet gravity to the piece. This copy bears a presentation to Yves Breton, notary and discerning collector, giving it exemplary provenance. Breton moved in Ponge’s reading circle; the inscription is its tangible trace. Text, paper and binding together form a restrained monument to Groethuysen and to Ponge’s poetics of precision.
Quantity
Ponge, Francis
Note hâtive à la gloire de Groethuysen
1951 | Lyon | Les écrivains réunis
A rare, finely presented homage, exemplary of Ponge’s bibliophile trajectory; the presentation to Yves Breton adds a tangible history.
A concentrated tribute in which Ponge honours Groethuysen with the crisp cadence of his prose-poems. The production is distinctly bibliophile: a small issue on Chine paper and a custom binding by Leroux. The havana box calf and metallic-patterned boards lend a quiet gravity to the piece. This copy bears a presentation to Yves Breton, notary and discerning collector, giving it exemplary provenance. Breton moved in Ponge’s reading circle; the inscription is its tangible trace. Text, paper and binding together form a restrained monument to Groethuysen and to Ponge’s poetics of precision.
€1,100
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-12 (Duodecimo) approx. 17 × 22 cm
Edition Particulars
One of 50 numbered copies on Chine paper; with autograph presentation to Yves Breton; association copy.
Copy Number
No. XXXIII
Paper
Chine
Inscription
Envoi
Product DETAIL
A brief, lucid laudatio presenting Groethuysen as a thinker of attention and moral poise. Ponge shapes his dense, image-rich, exact prose into a tribute without grandiloquence. The tone is meditative and spare, favouring concretion over rhetoric. Between the lines one senses Ponge’s resistance to pathos and his trust in the materiality of language. The stake is poetic rather than biographical: Groethuysen becomes a mirror for Ponge’s own ethic of looking and naming.

Michaux, Henri
Ailleurs
*Ailleurs* is a keystone in Michaux’s imaginary ethnographies—an atlas of inner geographies, issued by NRF in 1948. Miguet’s sober bordeaux morocco binding matches the text’s clarity and restraint. With dry precision and wry humor, Michaux details peoples, rituals, and languages that are both alien and oddly familiar. The airy layout paces attention and thought. This copy belongs to the small head issue on vélin pur fil and is notably fresh. A book that relocates the reader in place—a cartography of the mind.
Book
€1,050

Ribemont-Dessaignes, Georges
Ariane
A remarkable copy of *Ariane*, published in the *Les Cahiers Nouveaux* series, inscribed with a poetic and enigmatic message by Ribemont-Dessaignes to Jacques Matarasso. This deluxe Japan paper edition was elegantly rebound in 1994 by Georges Leroux, in a restrained style that echoes the work’s Dadaist spirit.
Book
€1,100

Gracq, Julien
Au château d'Argol
Julien Gracq’s debut novel, issued by José Corti, sets a gothic castle on the Breton coast as the stage for a charged, almost dream-logic encounter between three figures. The prose is musical and image-rich, favouring symbolic landscapes and metaphysical weather. Born near Surrealism yet distinctly independent, the book establishes Gracq’s lucid enchantment from the start. For bibliophiles this is a key title: an early Corti publication, scarce in appealing condition, and the opening note of a major twentieth-century voice. Its limited print-run and initially slow reception add to the sense of discovery. This copy is on publisher’s stock.
Book
€610

Dominique Fourcade, Pierre Buraglio · Buraglio, Pierre
Au travail ma chérie
First volume in the Préférence series: a focused encounter between Dominique Fourcade and Pierre Buraglio. The Imprimerie nationale produced an exemplary typographic edition on Rives wove, limited to 100 copies signed by both. Buraglio “illuminates” the book with spare, hand-made interventions—strokes, contours, accents—that let the page breathe. The plain wrappers in a sturdy case stress the workshop feel. This copy bears a presentation to Jacques Dauchez, adding a vivid bibliophilic provenance. A scarce, exact book where typography, gesture, and poetry hold each other in balance.
Book
€725

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A signature confirms; a dedication connects; an association copy tells a story.

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In auction descriptions, “complete” often sounds reassuring — but it is only meaningful when verified against the colophon, the justification, and the bibliography. For The Hidden Page, clarity begins where vague market language ends.

Size does (not) matter
Size does (not) matter: The Paradoxical Power of Format in Avant-Garde Book Art





















































