Plaisir du bibliophile, Paris 1931.
16mo, 120 pp., (1) p., (1) l.
Chocolate leather decorated on the covers with a pattern of mosaic squares in white, lemon and red, horizontal strip of green leather in which the author’s name has been gilt stamped, plain flat spine, lower cover with the same decoration as the upper cover except for the horizontal green strip which includes the title of the book, paper endpapers imitating a tree trunk, wrappers and spine bound in. Signed binding by Robert Bonfils.
157 x 118 mm.
First edition of which 600 copies were printed on chamois laid paper.
The first work to be printed in European half-bold type by the Deberny et Peignot Foundry.
The present copy is numbered 145.
Roger Martin du Gard was a French writer who was born on 23 March 1881 in Neuilly-sur-Seine and died on 22 August 1958 in Sérigny, near Bellême (Orne). He was the winner of the 1937 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Written in 1931, this screenplay tells the story of Uncle Léandro to Martin du Gard.
Late 1920s. On board an ocean liner taking him back to France, Roger Martin du Gard listens to his friend Léandro Barbazano, a bookseller in North Africa, who tells him about a love affair he had as a young man and the impact it had on his life.
A precious copy preserved in a sumptuous contemporary binding by Robert Bonfils in chocolate leather with mosaic of green, red and lemon leather with the wrappers bound in.
Robert Bonfils, born in Paris on 15 October 1886 and died in the same city on 1 November 1971, was a French Art Deco illustrator, painter, engraver, lithographer and bookbinder.
In 1903, he studied at the Germain Pilon School, in 1905 at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs and from 1906 to 1909 at the École des Beaux-Arts.
In 1909, he exhibited at the Salon d’Automne and in 1912 at the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs; in 1914 in Brussels (decorative paintings and objets d’art), then at the Tuileries and at most of the major painting and graphic art exhibitions in France and abroad.
He was one of the organizers of the 1925 International Exhibition, taking part in 9 classes and designing the poster; he also played a major role in the exhibition in 37.
A founder member of the Société de la Reliure Originale, he exhibited in 47 and 53 at the Bibliothèque Nationale and in 49 in Lyon. From 1913 onwards, he designed theatre sets, and from 1915 onwards, printed or shaped fabric models for Bianchini; in 1918, tapestry cartoons.
Robert Bonfils has works, paintings and book bindings in numerous public and private collections in Paris, the provinces and abroad. Knight of the Legion of Honour in 26, he has been an Officer since 1938.
