Pierre Mac Orlan / Gaston Barret - Surprenants visages de Paris [Reliure pyrogravée de Henri Vaucher] - 1952

Original edition, illustrated by Gaston Barret with 10 color reproductions of watercolors outside the text and 4 line drawings within the text. Colors executed by E. Vairel.

Set in a beautiful binding signed by Henri Vaucher (1886-1953), executed in full brown calfskin, covers adorned with six pyrograved illustrations by Barret, spine decorated with raised bands and the title. Endpapers and flyleaves lined with turned leather, a maroquin brown filet framing the covers, the binder's name stamped at the bottom. Gilt head. Under a cardboard slipcase, illustrated with a ship in the center of the front cover.
Covers and spine preserved.

Stroll through 20th-century Paris (Pont-Neuf, rue de Moussy, Montmartre, porte de la Vilette, rue de l'Abreuvoir...).

Limited unique print run of 1,150 numbered copies on Marais vellum. This one is No. 173.

Gaston Barret (1910-1991), a French engraver and illustrator. He illustrated about fifty works: Alain-Fournier's The Great Meaulnes, Z. Marcas and La Fausse Maîtresse by Honoré de Balzac, Raboliot in 1954, and The Fishing Box by Maurice Genevoix in 1957. He also illustrated texts by Francis Carco, Colette, Alphonse Daudet, Maurice Genevoix, La Fontaine, Jean de La Varende, Pierre Louÿs, Pierre Mac Orlan, Maupassant, Marcel Pagnol, Louis Pergaud, Sade, Edmond Rostand, Saint-Exupéry, and Virgil.

Pierre Mac Orlan / Gaston Barret
Surprising faces of Paris
Editions Vialetay, 1952
in-4, 33 x 25 cm; 88 pages. 3 folios.

Condition: Beautiful binding, in good condition. Scuffing on the spine and edges, a stain on the second cover. Case dirty with some scratches. Impeccable interior.