About the artists: Marcellin Semet, born in 1894, completed an apprenticeship as a bookbinder with Chambolle-Duru during the First World War. His later partner, Georges Plumelle, born in 1902, was trained by the gilder Pagnier and later by Maylander. The two met after the war in Gruel's workshop.

In 1925, they took over the Pinardon company together. They quickly gained a reputation for combining first-class bookbinding skills with a very lively, modernist formal vocabulary. The best covers by Semet & Plumelle feature flowing lines or arabesques on a delicate two- or three-colour ground. Their style remained unchanged for years. Semet retired to the south of France in 1955, Plumelle continued to work alone until 1980.