FR EN
1 / 2
a brown and green rug with a pattern on itan open book with handwriting on it sitting on top of a table
Featured lot selected by the auctions House.
BOISGIRARD - ANTONINI

85 - SEGALEN (VICTOR)
See original version (French)

Estimate €3,000 - €5,000
Sale commission
Description
SEGALEN (VICTOR) Stèles. Pei-King, published by Pei-T’ang Press, 1912. Volume in folio (288 x 142 mm), accordion-folded, 106 pp. (including the first 2 and last 3 blank endpapers), cream paper cover with a printed title label pasted onto the front cover, the whole bound in two cardboard boards with Sinicised Art Nouveau decoration, fastened with violet and gold laces. Slight marks from adhesive tape used to secure the glassine cover. Genuine first edition, from a limited, non-commercial print run of just 286 copies. Copy no. 90 on vellum. ‘An ordinary print run was produced on parchment-finished vellum. The numbering continues beyond the 81 copies justified under “Korea”. […] It seems unlikely that the figure of 200 copies (mentioned in a letter from the author) was ever reached. Only by examining the numbers of the copies that booksellers or collectors might come across or acquire will this bibliophilic detail one day be established.”, Jean Loize, ‘From Tahiti to Tibet: The Poet Victor Segalen’s (1878–1919) Stopovers and Finds’, 1944. Set on the Lazarist presses in Beijing in May and June 1912, and published on 13 August 1912, this first edition is the only one corrected in Segalen’s own hand; unlike the second edition, the printing of which he was, to his regret, unable to oversee, as it was carried out too quickly for his liking. Complete with the three hand-stamped ‘cinnabar’ red seals at the beginning and end of the volume. AUTOGRAPHED COPY SIGNED by the author to Eddy Poilay [?] ‘in warm anticipation’, dated November 1912 and written in Changdefu. Both a ‘vision of China’ and a major work of 20th-century French literature, this text reflects Segalen’s profound experience of the Chinese world. Having begun studying Chinese in 1908, he travelled to China on three occasions: first as a doctor and explorer from 1909 to 1913, then on two archaeological missions in 1913–1914 and in 1917. These journeys gave rise to significant scholarly works, notably the ‘First Report on the Archaeological Findings Obtained in Western China by the Mission of Gilbert de Voisins, Jean Lartigue and Victor Segalen’ (1914), published in two instalments (1916) and later supplemented by an atlas (1923–1924). But this immersion also greatly enriched his literary work, inspiring a series of books that explore and reimagine China in various forms, such as *Stèles* (1912), *Peintures* (1916) and *Odes* (1926). (see Henri Bouillier, in *En Français dans le texte*, Bnf, 1998, no. 340).
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
About the sale Charity sale in aid of the Petits Frères Des Pauvres charity
Auction location
Auction time 10/25/2026 at 10:00 AM
Pictures credits:
Boisgirard Antonini
See original version (French)
You may also like