CHERVILLE - LES CHIENS ET LES CHATS (ARTISTIC BINDING) - 1888

Subject: Book from the last third of the 19th century. Les Chiens et les Chats by Gaspar de Cherville. Artistic binding by Marius Michel, illustrations by Eugène Lambert and prologue by Alexandre Dumas.

Publication: Paris, Libraire de l'Art, 1888.

Description: Larger Folio (35 cm). XXVII, 289 pages. 6 etchings and 143 drawings by Eugéne Lambert. Full leather binding, signed by Marius Michel. 'Edition a 100 exemplaires, south Japan [number 81]'.

Conservation: Very good condition. Very good specimen.

Author's biography: Gaspard Pescou, Marquis de Cherville (1819-1898), was a writer, collaborator of Alexandre Dumas and author of short stories and cinematographic novels. Gaspard began quite late in letters and it was not until the 1850s when he began to collaborate with Alexandre Dumas on a long series of novels-feuilletes, while he later published novels and stories about hunting, country life and education.

Henri Marius Michel (1864 – 1925) was a French bookbinder with a workshop in Paris. His work as a copyist in his father's workshop did not satisfy him and he reacted against polishing, traditional Moroccan techniques, comb papers, copies of decorations made fifty years ago and, in general, against everything that paralyzed evolution of art binding. Marius Michel introduced the modernist plant language in the decorations of the bindings, which reflected this phenomenon of osmosis with the nature of art nouveau. He created decorations based on the skillful use of an ornamental flower accompanied, on some occasions, by a discreet emblem. It is a flower interpreted for each book. For the first time, he established the need for harmony between the decoration of the binding and the soul of the book, as well as the obligation to reject any type of copy or pastiche. Consecrated at the Paris Universal Exposition of 1900, he brought together in his workshop the best professionals of the moment, among whom Georges Cretté stood out.

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