KIPLING, Rudyard. - Lot 185

KIPLING, Rudyard. The Most Beautiful Story in the World. Paris, René Kieffer, 1919. Large 8vo. Morocco leather with bands and vellum, mosaic-patterned text. Smooth spine, gilt title and gilt lines; original cover preserved, gilt head; beautiful endpapers (slight rubbing). In an Art Deco binding, likely by UCAD or associates. First edition of the illustrations by Maxime Dethomas, published in a run of 550 copies. Our copy is one of the editions printed on Arches-style vergé paper, no. 517. Translated by Louis Fabulet and Robert d’Humières. Text and illustrations in sepia printed on a yellow background. Provenance: from the library of Pierre Séjourné. Pierre Séjourné (1930–1993), a Parisian bookseller and lover of bookbindings, a flutist, and an enthusiast of literature and classical music, was as much a part of Parisian artistic and literary circles as he was of the world of the Decorative Arts and their schools, thanks to his uncle, the architect and academician Albert Laprade. Also an author and actor, he devoted himself to writing and performing his own plays, which were staged primarily in the Paris region.