MAILLOL (Aristide). ~ Daphnis et Chloe.
French edition. No. 291 of 500 signed copies, this copy with a set of 21 early state proof prints entitled ‘Epreuves rare’, 4 woodcuts being shown in two different states. 49 woodcuts by Aristide Maillol including one on the cover of the wrappers) with an additional suite of 48 woodcuts including one ‘planche refusee’ being the first proof of the woodcut on p.166 (the lone goat on p.209 does not have an extra print but it is from the block used on p. 72 which does. Printed on Papier Maillol Pp. [2], 217, [5], the book and the extra suite are loose as issued in their own printed paper wrappers, the former with a woodcut on the upper cover, housed in the original chemise and slipcase with printed vellum spine. An extremely good, bright set.
An unusual copy of the book with an extremely unusual set of early state proof woodcuts with black backgrounds showing they were trial proofs, 4 being in two different states, as well as having two different prospectuses for the English edition published by Zwemmer the following year in 1938.
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delights of book illustration when images he had produced originally for the Cranach Press Georgics, which was to be unpublished by Kessler, were taken up by Gonin who then went on to produce this wonderful edition of Daphnis and Chloe which was simultaneously published in limited editions in French, English and German.
The illustrations are beautiful, John Buckland Wright was a great fan and wrote to Sandford at the Golden Cockerel Press: “They are probably far more erotic then even you would want me to do - I don't know - perhaps they correspond with your ideas. Actually I think you'd be prosecuted for publishing. Anyhow, they are quite perfect”.