Jean Cocteau - Le Secret professionnel - 1925

Jean Cocteau — Le Secret professionnel (Paris, Au Sans Pareil, 1925)

Exemplaire n°204/440 on Montgolfier wove paper — Fine custom binding by Atelier Loutrel (Paris)
Gilt top edge — marbled endpapers — Ingres France flyleaf — added guard leaves

A finely preserved bibliophile copy of the 1925 Au Sans Pareil edition of Jean Cocteau’s Le Secret professionnel, numbered 204/440 on Montgolfier wove paper.
This example has been rebound shortly after publication by the Parisian atelier Atelier Loutrel, whose characteristic embossed circular stamp (“A.L.”) appears on the inner board.

Binding (Atelier Loutrel, Paris)

Custom green cloth binding executed to a high artisanal standard.

Gilt top edge (T.E.G.) with partial gilding visible along the fore-edge.

Spine lettered in gilt.

Hand-marbled endpapers, typical of early 20th-century Parisian binderies.

Ingres France laid-paper flyleaf, consistent with Loutrel’s material palette.

Original publisher’s wrappers preserved intact within the binding.


Interior

Printed on Montgolfier d’Annonay wove paper, edges untrimmed.

Uniformly clean pages with natural age toning.

The illustrations are printed in Cocteau’s characteristic blue-grey tone.

Each illustration is protected by a translucent guard leaf added by the binder — not present in the original softcover issue.
Condition
Binding tight, clean, and well-preserved.
Gilt edges bright and even.
Marbled endpapers intact.
Text block crisp, with no tears or repairs.
Small, discreet early pencil note on the half-title (erasable if desired).

A superior, bibliophile-grade example of Cocteau’s 1925 edition, elegantly enhanced by a period custom binding from Atelier Loutrel, with premium materials and refined finishing characteristic of early 20th-century French fine bindings.
Sent tracked and insured