Full-grain binding
Golden yellow box calf, rich interplay of lines of hand-gilt stylised palm leaves over cover and spine, without title; gilt headpieces, hand-stitched endpapers, front and foot boards ‘sur temoin’, bord-à-bord leather mirror with salmon-coloured box calf, flying leaf moiré silk; half-leather chemise, slipcase with leather binding, Japanese wood veneer cover.
Évariste de Parny: Chansons madécasses with 30 woodcut vignettes by Emile Laboureur (painter, lithographer and illustrator) Ex. No. 217 of 400 copies numbered in Arabic and 12 copies numbered in Roman numerals, Editions de la nouvelle Revue française, 1920
The French poet Évariste de Parny, born in 1753, who had never been to Madagascar himself, published a collection of prose poems called Chansons Madécasses in Paris in 1787, originally in Mada-gassic, then translated into French. Even then, he made a name for himself as an ‘anti-colonialist’.
About the artist: Henri Creuzevault, the elder son of Louis Creuzevault, born in 1905, joined his father's workshop in the 1920s after a short apprenticeship, where he soon began producing marvellous bindings. His younger brother Louis-Claude, born in 1912, joined the company in 1933.
Father Louis retired in 1936 and the company was now called Creuzevault frères. However, brother Louis-Claude died in 1937 and Henri continued to run the bookbindery alone. From 1940 to 1960, he produced the most beautiful and exclusive bindings of the time. His designs were realised by the best craftsmen.
In addition to this activity, he ran a gallery, to which he devoted himself exclusively from 1959.
