Paris: Prisma 1947. First editions. Paris: Prisma 1947. limited to 500 copies this number 375. 4tos pp. 271; 335; 42 copiously illustrated throughout in b/w & occasionally color including color frontispiece portraits of Albert and Francois Fratellini in volume 3. Publisher's original green cloth lettered in gilt on the spines & upper boards which are also decorated with a circus illustration within gilt blocking in photo-illustrated dust jackets. Text in French. Boards lightly scuffed diagonal loss at the bottom corner of the upper cover of volume 2 about one inch by half an inch amateurishly repaired with cello-tape which also affects the lower corner of the text block diminishing through p. 147 text unaffected modest foxing & toning mostly at endpapers & pastedowns previous owner's small address label on the front pastedown of each volume; jackets modestly rubbed soiled & faded particularly volume 2 with some short tears & losses & a few old tape repairs on the versos a serviceable & generally attractive set. <br/><br/>Splendidly illustrated mostly from photographs the first two volumes were also issued separately in an edition of 2000 numbered 500-2500. The third volume provides a history of the Fratellini brothers whose engagement at the Circus Medrano in Paris France after World War I sparked a strong resurgence of interest in the Big Top. The author a journalist was also a lion tamer zoo director & founder in 1949 of the Cirque Club. Prisma hardcover books
126pp., with colour illustrations, 28cm., illustrated softcover, exhibition catalogue (Milano, Castello Sforzesco di Milano, 7 guigno - 15 settembre 2013), very good condition, ISBN 978-88-9784804-2, C96936