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an old book with a picture of a man holding a stickan open book with a drawing of a woman laying on a bedan old book with a picture of a woman sitting at a tablean old book with a brown cover and a red coveran old book with a drawing of a man sitting on the ground
Maître Paul PASTAUD

1296 - FRANCE (Anatole). Thaïs. Paris, Librairie de la collection d…
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Estimate €60 - €80
Sale commission
Description
FRANCE (Anatole). Thaïs. Paris, Librairie de la collection des dix – A. Romagnol, 1900. In-8, brown half-basane, smooth spine, gilt title (later binding). A few minor scuffs. A copy with wide margins, untrimmed, (5)-240-(1) pp. on heavy vellum – watermarked ‘Thaïs’ – or on China paper, with the very fine black etchings after H. LAURENS. A rare and very fine deluxe edition, published during the author’s lifetime and the first illustrated edition of one of the famous writer’s major works. A subscription edition limited to 300 numbered copies and a single unique copy. Characteristic of the Orientalist movement, this text is also a form of tribute that France paid to his then mistress, Léontine Arman de Cavaillet, a salon hostess during the Third Republic, comparing her to the great hetaera of antiquity. A curious composite copy, probably unique, which appears to have been compiled as a working or preparatory copy prior to the final printing of the work, and subsequently bound. It contains only one of the inset plates (printed on Japanese paper). A few folios of text only, printed without the etchings (ff. 55–59). Some folios show small splashes of printing ink (ff. 3), or ink smudges (possibly from the press?) (ff. 109). Traces of the press in the margins (poorly aligned cutting and folding?) (ff. 48–49). Several etchings or pages throughout the volume bear pencil annotations – in the same hand – which are partially erased or, in one case, what appear to be corrections to the drawing, in brown pencil (ff. 208). There is a mixture of papers (Chinese paper and heavy vellum), suggesting the numbered edition of 40 copies on Chinese paper and vellum; however, another paper quality is also evident, as well as a sepia-toned plate on Japanese paper (bound at the beginning) that appears to come instead from the numbered run of 1 to 20. What serves as the cover, printed on tinted heavy vellum, resembles the subscription notice with a black engraving as a vignette. It is therefore different from the other covers. The proof copy is bound in at the beginning. The binding is slightly rubbed and faded, with a few stains and soiling (see description), minor faint water stains at the spine on a few folios, minor restoration to one folio on China paper (f. 18), a few minor ink bleeds from the engravings onto the text opposite (not a cause for concern); otherwise a good copy.
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About the sale MONTIGNAC – 31st BOOK SALE – Day 3 of 4 – Nos. 1085 to 1642
Auction location
Auction time 08/21/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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