Pablo Picasso, René Char
Le Marteau sans maître, suivi de Moulin premier. 1927-1935. Version définitive. Paris, José Corti, 1945.
Estimate €20,000–30,000
A superb copy in a fresh and delicate binding created by Rose Adler, dated 1947. The fineness of the pattern symbolises an unstructured hammer, and the book includes an original etching by Picasso, and an autograph poem by René Char.
Arthur Rimbaud
Une saison en enfer. Bruxelles, Alliance typographique, 1873.
Estimate €25,000–35,000
A graceful binding with a mosaic by Rose Adler, dated 1959, covering Rimbaud’s masterpiece. None of the copies given by Rimbaud were bound at the time. “It is not until the 1920s, the sale of the copies and the birth of Rimbaud’s cult that the first attempts to decorate and carefully protect this collection appeared” (J. Toulet and A. Jammes in Relier Rimbaud).
André Breton
La Lampe dans l’horloge. Paris, Robert Marin, 1948.
Estimate €15,000–20,000
A very elegant and delicate binding by Rose Adler inspired by the title of the book, symbolising the passage from day to night. Created in the the last year of her life, it was made for Professor Millot and autographed by André Breton.
Marcel Proust
Correspondence with the count Louis Gautier-Vignal. 1914-1921
Estimate €20,000–30,000
Louis Gautier-Vignal met Proust thanks to Lucien Daudet in 1914. They soon became friends, sharing the same social origin, a taste for literature and a love for men. Fourteen letters are collected here, relating different episodes of their lives.
Jean Cocteau
Portrait of the Baron de Charlus. circa 1921-1923. Original drawing signed.
Estimate €7,000–10,000
This is a brilliant portrait of the gorgeous and monstrous character of Charlus in Proust's famous work, In Search of Lost Time. He is here depicted dressed in an evening suit, with a severe and inquisitive look.
Pierre Bonnard – Paul Verlaine
Parallèlement. Lithographies originales de Pierre Bonnard. Paris, Imprimerie nationale, Ambroise Vollard, 1900.
Estimate €15,000–25,000
A beautiful binding by Jacques-Anthoine Legrain, executed and gilded by Maylander. This elegantly bound book is one of the artist’s most beautiful illustrated books.
André Derain – Guillaume Apollinaire
L’Enchanteur pourrissant. Paris, Henry Kahnweiler, 1909.
Estimate €30,000–50,000
The original edition of Guillaume Apollinaire’s first book, illustrated by Derain, brings together a number of themes important to the cubist poet: impossible love, obsession with time, search for identity and exaltation of poetic creation.
Joan Miró, Paul Éluard
À toute épreuve. Genève, Gérald Cramer, 1958.
Estimate €15,000–25,000
A rare copy of this marvellous book, among Miró’s most beautiful, illustrated with 80 prints by the artist.
Jim Dine, Guillaume Apollinaire
The Poet Assassinated. New York, Tanglewood Press, 1968.
Estimate €10,000–15,000
An elegant binding-object by Georges Leroux, dated 1970, protects one of the great Pop Art books. This deluxe edition contains 8 stencils by Jim Dine, on glossy paper, justified and monogrammed by the artist.
Jean-Claude Richard, abbé de Saint-Non
Voyage pittoresque ou Description des royaumes de Naples et de Sicile. Paris, Imprimerie Clousier, 1781-1786.
Estimate €10,000–15,000
A first edition of one of the most beautiful illustrated books of the 18th century. During Saint-Non’s travels in Italy in 1759, he becomes friends with Fragonard and Hubert Robert who draw beauty spots and the excavations at Paestum, Herculaneum and Pompeii. On his return to France, Saint-Non asks the best artists to engrave the drawing boards he brought from Italy.
William Coxe – Napoleonica
Voyage en Suisse. Paris, Letellier, 1790.
Estimate €4,000–6,000
This book comes from Napoleon’s library at Fontainebleau, which followed him into exile on Elba. Leaving Fontainebleau after his first abdication, Napoléon brought 168 books with him from the castle’s library. Highly interested in history and geography, he chose many travel books.
Sotheby's Books and Manuscripts sale in Paris on 20 November features 20 bindings by the renowned Rose Adler, along with books by Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró and first editions, books and manuscripts by Charles Baudelaire, Albert Camus, Jean Cocteau, Marcel Proust and Oscar Wilde. Click the image above to view the slideshow.