VIAL MAZEL (G.). [PROVENCE]. - Lot 236

VIAL MAZEL (G.). [PROVENCE]. Le Bras de St. Honorat. Saigon, Presses de la Sili, November 1944. Large quarto, (1)-(2 blank leaves)-49 -(1) pp. Contemporary pine-patterned morocco-bound percaline, smooth spine accented with blind-stamped fillets, title blind-stamped lengthwise (a few slight scuffs and stains, but a fine copy). A rare first edition of this story set on Saint-Honorat, one of the two main Lérins Islands off the coast of Cannes. Illustrated by LE GUIREC with 7 beautiful color silkscreen prints, signed and mounted, including 2 full-page illustrations and a tailpiece. A correction in ink in the author’s own hand on p. 41. Beautiful Indochinese printing on local laid paper, with no print run information. An authentic account of a Provençal childhood... Includes a dedication from the author to Academician Georges Duhamel. "These pages, recounting an authentic memory of a childhood in Provence, were published during the Japanese occupation of Indochina / I ask Mr. Georges Duhamel to accept these as tokens of (...) and affectionate regard / In memory of his trip to Indochina in November–December 1947: Vial Mazel / President of the Alliance Française Committee in Indochina.” Enclosed: -VAUDOYER. Fontaines de Provence. Etchings by Robert Guilhermet. Paris, Les Editions de la Pierre Percée, 1948. Large quarto, printed cover with flaps. A fine copy. -VERDET, André. Provence Noire. Paris, Cercle d’Art, 1955 Large quarto. Paperback (dust jacket very slightly rubbed and stained). Dust jacket illustrated with a large original black-and-white composition by Picasso. First edition. Black-and-white photographs by Gilles Ehrmann, printed by heliogravure. The author’s first photo album. A fine copy. Provenance: from the library of Pierre Séjourné. Pierre Séjourné (1930–1993), a Parisian bookseller and lover of bookbinding, 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.