LABOUREUR. MAETERLINK. - Lot 187

LABOUREUR. MAETERLINK. The Life of Bees [with] The Life of Termites [with] The Life of Ants. Paris, L’Artisan du Livre, 1930. 3 square in-8 volumes, publisher’s paperback bound in an orange slipcase and dust jacket. Frontispiece, 313 pp., (last 3 folios blank), 2 plates, printed cover; frontispiece, 186 pp., (last 3 folios blank), printed cover; frontispiece, 234 pp., (last 3 folios blank), printed cover. Black half-shagreen with corners, ribbed spine adorned with a gilded bee in the center, untrimmed, cover and spine preserved, publisher’s slipcase. Slight wear; slipcase slightly tarnished. ENTOMOLOGY A fine copy. -Sylvain Laboureur, Complete Catalog of the Works of Jean-Emile Laboureur, II, pp. 206–213, no. 425, 426, and 427. A beautiful edition of three of Maeterlinck’s works devoted to the life of nature, superbly illustrated with drawings and engravings by Jean-Emile LABOUREUR (1877–1943). *The Life of Bees* includes a frontispiece, 2 plates, and 7 chapter headings. *The Life of Termites* is adorned with a frontispiece and 11 chapter headings, and *The Life of Ants* is illustrated with a frontispiece and 9 chapter headings. Printed in an edition of 750 copies. One of the tinted Rives vellum copies, this one no. 406. A perfectly preserved copy, in a modern binding. Included: -FABRE, J.-H. *Souvenir entomologiques* Paris, Delagrave, 1914. Large 8vo, contemporary aubergine-colored morocco half-leather binding, ribbed spine, gilt title. Spine slightly faded but a fine copy printed on laid paper with beautiful sepia heliogravure prints. 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, frequented both the Parisian artistic and literary circles and the world of the Decorative Arts and their schools through 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. Complete Catalog of the Works of Jean-Emile Laboureur, Vol. II, No. 425