MAILLOL, Aristide. HORACE. ~ Odes d'Horace.
Text in Latin and French, translated by Baron Delort. One of 350 copies on hand made paper, this no.291, signed by the publisher. 125 wood engravings by Maillol with two duplicated on each wrapper. Two volumes. Printed on handmade linen paper by Maillol with the Maillol watermark. Loose as issued in wrappers in the original chemises with printed spines including two different wood engravings by Maillol, housed together in the original card slipcase. A very good, fresh set, the spine of the chemises are slightly darkened, otherwise extremely good.
Gonin and Maillol’s book was a triumph of simple lines and subtle typography. Maillol had been introduced to book illustration by Harry Graf Kessler who had used Maillol to illustrated the Cranach Press Eclogues in 1926. In 1937 Maillol returned to the delights of book illustration when images he had produced originally for the Cranach Press Georgics, which was to be unpublished by Kessler, were taken up by Gonin who then went on to produced a wonderful edition of Daphnis and Chloe. The collaboration between Maillol and Gonin continued and with the Odes all the glories of the Cranach Georgics are evident alongside the earthy eroticism of the Daphnis and Chloe.
The wood-blocks were carved by Maillol and finished in 1939, but the printing of them was delayed by the war and not realized until 1958 long after Maillol’s death in 1944.