MENDÈS Catulle - SCHWABE Carlos. Hespérus

Paris, Société de la propagation des livres rares. 1904

Large In-8, 290x210mm, 51 ff. unbound, folded cover illustrated in color and gold inlay. Illustrated with 34 compositions by Carlos Schwabe watercolored in color and inlaid with silver: cover, 6 half-titles, frontispiece, 12 full-page plates, 14 vignettes and tailpiece.

LUXURY COPY on Imperial Japanese paper with a suite of all the illustrations printed in black on China paper.
Copy No. XXXV.

Often cited as one of the most beautiful art nouveau books in sales catalogs, it is certainly one of Carlos Schwabe's greatest successes. For us, it is one of the most beautiful modern illustrated books.

At the crossroads between symbolism and art nouveau, the artist's original compositions seize us as much by their strangeness as by their beauty. The deep colors sometimes encrusted with silver as well as the meticulous lines creating a disturbing, almost nightmarish reality make this book quite special.

There are times when experience, circumstances, chance, make you bring together the ingredients, which between them, will create the perfect recipe.
The Japanese paper, its format, the rendering of the watercolor on the paper, the illustrations as much in their mass as in their subject, the framing, the text/image compositions, the adjustment of the typography. This book is as a whole perfectly balanced and successful.

Condition: Very light foxing on 3 sheets of the suite on china. Otherwise this copy is in an almost perfect condition, as it could have been when it left the printer 120 years ago.

To learn more:

A documentary by Pete Beard on Carlos Schwabe and his art:
https://youtu.be/2JJMQOy1ZBo?si=I2rCp78OF5N5ydnA

To be consulted in full on the BNF website:
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1065326n/f23.planchecontact