Edited and Introduced By Richard BarberBiblio.com
LES CHANSONS DE BILITIS. Seul texte véritable et complet. 2020 no. 9 of 69 copies
Best.-Nr. 2020LCaceres Spain: Javier Martin Santos 2020. reprint of the 1929 'uncensored' edition no. 9 of 69 copies. Leatherbound Hardcover. Fine/no dj as issued. George Barbier. The rarest and most erotic work by George Barbier: Scarce reprint of the 1929 'uncensored' edition: LES CHANSONS DE BILITIS. Seul texte véritable et complet. 2020 no. 9 of 69 copies --- --- --- --- Caceres Spain Javier Martin Santos 2020 no. 9 of 69 copies one of only 13 copies where the metallic inks were hand-painted with a very fine brush. Text in FRENCH. --- --- --- The following description of the 1929 original corresponds to the data for the reprint : The book with George Barbier's tamed illustrations was first published in 1922. This new 2020 print with more explicit texts and bolder Barbier illustrations is based on a copy of the 1929 edition in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France reference RES G YA-18. Only 25 copies were printed of the 1929 edition for the 'Les Amis de Bilitis' in Mytylène Greece Pierre Loüys- George Barbier : LES CHANSONS DE BILITIS. Seul texte véritable et complet. Imprimé à Mitylène pour les amis de Bilitis 1929. Small 4to. 9.75 x 7.5 inches 24.6x19cm. pp. iv 56 i i. Wood-engraved color frontispiece printed title page in various colors with color wood-engraved vignette and Louÿs text in three sections 'Bucoliques en Pamphylie' 'Elegies à Lesbos' and 'Epigrammes dans lIle de Chypre' leaf with justification and 'achevé d'imprimer'; illustrated with 60 wood-engraved illustrations by Pierre Bouchet after George Barbier 54 in color seven full-page 24 decorating the text the remainder culs-de-lampes or vignettes as well as numerous head- and tail-pieces and initial letters verse numbering in gilt in Roman numerals text in capitals ruled throughout and two additional wood-engravings for the wrappers. There is currently one copy of the 1929 edition being offered by a French bookseller for EURO 24000.00. --- --- --- This 2020 edition has in addition to the 1929 edition also the 2-page menu for '18. Novembre 1929' and "Chansons de Bilitis Inedites'. It is bound in full crushed morocco with front board ruled in gilt and vertical decoration down the middle the wrappers with gilt illustrations are bound in marbled endpapers. Matching morocco-edged marbled board slipcase. --- --- --- Included is a 12-page prospectus for the reprint in Spanish and French. --- --- --- Javier Martin Santos has published several books from the 1920s by Francois Louis Schmied and George Barbier in very well done very limited editions. He also published editions of two books by Schmied that were not published during his lifetime: "Chansons de Tanger." The book with the original illustrations tempera is in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France reference RES G YA-18. The second on is Vol de Nuit by Saint-Exupéry. F.-L. Schmied began the illustrations shortly before his death leaving the work unfinished. His son Théo continued it in 1947 completing the illustrations but not the edition. They produced 38 pages distributed as follows: 20 full-page illustrations 10 smaller illustrations most with typographic design one sheet with the decorated initial "L" one illustration for the end three pencil portraits one of them of Saint-Exupéry based on the photograph that appears in the January 1932 issue of the magazine l'Aérophile and three sheets with typographic design. For the design of this edition Santos followed these pages. Five full-page illustrations are signed by F.-L. Schmied who also created the initial and two pages with typographic layout; the rest of the illustrations are by Théo as can be seen from the difference in style. --- --- --- Bilitis First published in Paris in 1894 this purports to be translations of poems by a woman named Bilitis a contemporary and acquaintance of Sappho. This caused a sensation not only because finding an intact cache of poems from a completely unknown Greek poet circa 600 B.C. would be a miracle but because of its open and sensitive exploration of lesbian eroticism. Actually Bilitis never existed. The poems were a clever forgery by Pierre Louÿs -- the "translator"; to lend weight he had even included a bibliography with bogus supporting works. Louÿs actually did have a good command of the classics and he salted Bilitis with a number of quotations from real poets including Sappho to make it even more convincing. J. B. Hare. They Barbier's Les Chansons de Bilitis and Aphrodite are celebrations of the ancient gods and their freedom from taboo. Barbier's illustrations reveal this world in full flower . When reality and imagination fused not only was it possible to travel freely wherever you liked it was also possible to encounter ancient gods and fairies. Art Deco mixed old and new in previous unseen ways . In his glass Barbier mixed an uncanny cocktail of neoclassic and modern. Hiroshi Unno Carteret Illustrés IV 251. Javier Martin Santos hardcover
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