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155 - HUGO (Jean) and COCTEAU (Jean). Romeo and Juliet. A stage ad…
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Estimate €500 - €800
Sale commission
Description
HUGO (Jean) and COCTEAU (Jean). Romeo and Juliet. A stage adaptation based on the play by William Shakespeare. Set and costume designs by Jean Hugo. A fine copy in a binding by Trémois, enhanced by a superb autograph letter signed by Jean Hugo to Louba Krassine and accompanied by an original gouache by the artist. Paris, Au Sans Pareil, 1926. In-4 (250x330 mm), full green morocco, smooth spine decorated with the author’s name and the title in gold lettering with a half-border of gold dots at the top and bottom, wide inner frame of the same green morocco signed “M.P. Trémois", linings and endpapers of textured paper with brown and yellow stripes on a green background, gilt head on endpapers, original covers preserved (M.P. Trémois). 100 pages, 21 woodcuts by Jean Hugo, 20 of which are enhanced with gouache by Valentine Hugo (1 frontispiece, 1 black title vignette, several plates and headpieces). White friezes on a green background framing the text. Spine faded with losses at the caps and along the joints, slight scuffs on the covers, rubbed corners and two dented corners. Rare and minute foxing on the half-leather binding with a few small tears in the margins. First edition and first printing of the 21 illustrations by the painter and set designer Jean Hugo (1894–1984), great-grandson of Victor Hugo, engraved on wood and hand-coloured by Valentin Hugo, reproducing the sets and costumes created for the play *Romeo and Juliet* directed by Jean Cocteau, which premiered on 2 June 1924 at the Théâtre de la Cigale in Paris. Limited edition of 432 numbered copies; this is one of 350 copies on Montgolfier d’Annonay vellum, bearing the number 356. A fine copy, enhanced by an autograph letter signed by Jean Hugo to Louba Krassine, dated Fourques (Gard), on the first day of 1946, written in English in beautiful handwriting in black ink. 2 pages in-4 (on 1 folio, 306 x 239 mm). With an envelope addressed to Mrs Krassine c/o Mrs Mathias, 3 Sterling Street, Montpelier Place, London S.W.7, England. Gouache header (43 x 110 mm). Jean Hugo describes his melancholy at Louba Krassine’s absence: “Darling, I couldn’t write to you for Christmas, but I want to begin the new year with you. I have been thinking of you all the time, and everything here reminds me of you. Everything is exactly like last year, the irises, the jasmine, the winter sweet, except that you are not here. There is the stove in the drawing room and in the evening I look at the striped sofa, and you are so present that it is painful". "My fleeting moon, you have been the only light in my heart, during the past year, although so often clouded". A lovely original gouache decorates the letterhead, depicting a landscape of vineyards and olive trees in the Gard. A fine copy, enriched by a beautiful and touching love letter from Jean Hugo to Louba Krassine, daughter of the first ambassador to France of the new USSR, with whom he was presumably very much in love, even though she was the best friend of Frosca Munster, his great love...
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About the sale Fine antique and collectible books, manuscripts and modern illustrated works
Auction location
Auction time 06/29/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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