Nus

1852 · réf. 167496 — 1852. VARIN Amédée. Papillons Metamorphoses Terrestres des Peuples de L'Air. Two volumes. 4 232 4; 4 258 4 pp. illustrated with 35 hand-coloured engraved plates including frontispieces and title-page plates and with the portrait Cazotte opposite vol. II p. 152 not included in the list of plates. 8vo 262 x 175 mm. bound in publisher's polychrome bindings depicting Varin decorations and illustrated vignettes. Paris: Gabriel de Gonet 1852. First edition with points: "1852" on next to the printer's name "De Soye" at the end of both volumes. One of the most marvelously surreal butterfly books Varin's Papillons is a potpourri of fantasy imagination and humour. The 35 hand-coloured plates of anthropomorphic butterflies rendered in the vein of Grandville by Amédée Varin 1818-1883 are brilliantly conceived and executed. The text by Nus and Meray includes a chapter entitled "La Vestale du Rio Colorado" and features a hand-coloured image of a tattooed Native American brave butterfly. A very fine copy in the rare polychrome binding; the hand-coloured Varin engravings with particularly careful colouring. Vicaire VI 246-7. Brivois 315. unknown books