Descripción
Small folio, loose as issued on vélin d'Arches, within color-printed wrapper folder with the original glassine, in the original chemise and slipcase, overall 34.9 x 24.8 cm, the wrappers 33.9 x 24 cm, the pages 33.6 x 23.7 cm (13-1/4 x 9-5/16 in.). A collaborator's copy (apart from the numbered edition of 150), signed by François-Louis Schmied and numbered VII in the colophon. 12 original full-page hors-texte color wood engravings, sequentially numbered I to XII and each with Schmied's signature, in pencil; 54 additional color wood-engraved designs; decorative rules, bars and headings in color throughout. Collates 29 ff.: [2 ll.], 54 ll., [2 ll]; plus 12 ll. hors-texte color wood engravings printed one side only on single leaves; arranged [1 f. (blank)], 1 f. (half-title, colophon, title), 3 ff. ("Portique," the introduction by Mardrus), 23 ff. ("Portes," the 12 chapters), [1 f. (blank)], the hors-texte engraving numbered to each Porte positioned after its corresponding chapter title; complete. Slight corner wear and scuffing on slipcase, chemise spine with slight wear to edges and inconspicuous small spot, paper labels toned, faint offsetting of wood-engraved designs of title page onto colophon page, else generally fine throughout. Bénézit 12-472; Carteret IV 264; Prout II 29-07; Ritchie 28. The orientalist Joseph-Charles Mardrus collaborated with Schmied from 1924 on several works and supplied Schmied with the translations and explications for this adaption of an ancient Egyptian book of the dead. Its title is here incorporated into Schmied's title-cartouches, the form associated in ancient usage with identifying a royal name. Each of the twelve Portes begins, "O formes d'éternité, me voici," a presentation of the self at each chapter-portal for judgment into eternity. The first Porte ends, "Je suis pur. Je suis pur," an exhilarating declaration in the rites at the threshold of the living dead, nevertheless leading to the continued weighing within the subsequent Portes, each of which ends, "Passe, tu es pur." Thus on plate IV the green "Feather of Ma'at," goddess of truth and justice, weighs the heart and pure soul requisite for passage by Osiris, king of the dead, for the journey onward toward the eternal rush fields. After the affirmation of the last Porte is added a monumental engraved block "C'est fini." Schmied's maquette and sketches were exhibited in December 1926 at the Galeries Georges Petit in Paris, where Schmied also showed with Dunand, Goulden and Jouve as a group. The edition was then printed in Schmied's atelier by his apprentices and his son Théo. The complex color compositions of the hors-texte plates and the many decorative designs demanded innumerable pulls from the press. Publication was finally achieved by 30 April 1929. "The influence of medieval and Renaissance 'book architecture' that shines through in Le livre de la vérité de parole can be recognized in the initials, ornaments and decorative fields that make Schmied's artist's book so beautiful and so valuable" (Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Koopman Collection on-line). Ward Ritchie (1987) describes the book (no. 28, p.34) as a "… perfect collaboration between Dr. Mardrus and Schmied.… warm and ingenious in its design, one of Schmied's masterworks". N° de ref. del artículo ABE-1507651481406
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