SCHMIED (François Louis). Peau-Brune. From St-Nazaire to La - Lot 215

SCHMIED (François Louis). Peau-Brune. From St-Nazaire to La Ciotat. Lyon, Société des XXX de Lyon, 1931. 2 volumes, large in-4°, green morocco, large personalized blue and silver paladium decoration on covers, smooth spine, gray morocco lining with same decoration, beige moire endpapers, and (for the vol. of sequels) green half-maroquin with band, double silver fillet around covers, cover preserved, gilt edges on witnesses, green half-maroquin folders with band, slipcases (Marot-Rodde). Two large plates and 119 color vignettes & headbands, wood-engraved by François-Louis SCHMIED. Issued in an edition of 135 copies on Arches vellum, this one (no. 22), printed for Monsieur William Vincens Bouguereau, ONE OF XXX HEAD NAMES, containing, unjustified TWO ADDITIONAL SUITES OF ILLUSTRATIONS, one in color, A SUITE OF "STATEMENTS" OF THE SECOND PLANCHE "L'oiseau replie ses ailes", and A FIRST VERSION "Présentations", preface by the author. EXEMPLAIRE UNIQUE ENRICHI de TREIZE AQUARELLES ORIGINALES SIGNÉES celles des 25, 26 & 27 août, 8, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21 & 28 septembre (sur cinq planches montées sur onglet). Logbook of the "Peau-brune", the schooner on which SCHMIED set out, in the company of Jean DUNAND and his daughter "Zouzou", on a cruise from Saint-Nazaire to La Ciotat. He planned to sail around the world at the expense of a group of bibliophiles, to bring back illustrations for a forthcoming book. In his "Presentations", SCHMIED gives us part of his artistic testament: "[typography and illustration] try to be one, according to my sweet mania [...] Print is a constructive material, long studied and skilfully established, and it is inappropriate to decorate it with a crude graphic design [...] Perhaps I will be criticized for the apparent imbalance of my pages? Imbalance: no. Asymmetry: certainly, and I have a taste for it. It has always seemed to me that symmetry reflects a lazy mind that is content to invent only half or even a quarter of a work. Asymmetry requires a more sustained and varied effort [...]". Ex-libris W. Vincens Bouguereau. Cichocka, Gustave Miklos. Un grand œuvre caché, L25 (where some of Miklos's preparatory compositions for this work are reproduced).