About the cover:

Full leather binding Brown morocco binding with five bands, rich ornamental design covering the entire surface of both covers and spine, i.e. leather overlays in red, dark green and ochre. Gilded title on spine in second and third band fields. Hand-carved capitals, caps decorated with gold lines and three-sided gold edging. Full-surface mirror as a wine-red and smoothed morocco leather inlay, on which a wide frame of brown morocco leather is densely covered with gold-stamped ornaments, plus 5 frames of double lines in gold. A double line also on the standing edge. Fly leaf of patterned silk on comb-marbled paper; half-leather chemise with leather rail and coloured paper cover, slipcase with leather edging, covered with brownish-red coloured paper.

About the content:

José-Maria de Heredua: Les Trophées

Copy no. 2 of 25 numbered copies on Whatman paper. Chez Alphonse Lemerre, Paris, 1893. With a personal dedication from the author to Michel Baronnet.

The collection of poems consists of 118 sonnets. Heredia, a representative of Parnassianism, focuses on precise, vivid language and addresses mythological, historical and exotic motifs. The poems transport readers to antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, masterfully capturing the atmosphere and pathos of bygone eras. Heredia's works are known for their stylistic sophistication and clarity.

About the artist: Henri Marius Michel (1846–1925), son of the gilder Jean Michel (1821–1890), is considered one of the innovators of the French art of bookbinding. He received his training at the École des arts décoratifs and the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-arts de Paris. His works, inspired by Art Nouveau and excellently designed and executed, influenced the works of his fellow bookbinders. He acquired renown through exhibitions which earned him awards and through his two-volume book “La Reliure française” (1880) and soon was the leading bookbinder of his time.

His decoratively stylized flower ornaments were deliberately matched to the book’s content. In his workshop, he employed the best craftsmen of his time, such as Georges Cretté, who took over as Michel’s worthy successor in 1925.