Les Maîtres de L’Affiche

2 folio (16 x 12½ inches) vols. ¾ morocco over French curl marbled paper. Each vol with 5 raised bands; gilt title stamped in second compartment surrounded by gilt rule. Third compartment gilt stamped "Tomb I" and "Tomb II" respectively also surrounded by single gilt rule. Wear to corners and spine though each volume strong and structurally sound. Wrappers lacking. Front pastedown with bookplates of Harold Byron Gibbs, and Robert and Gladys Koch. Gladys Koch was a well known antiques dealer and her husband, Robert, was an art historian best known for his books on Louis C. Tiffany and Will Bradley. He specialized in the Art Nouveau period and authored articles on posters.

Recognizing the continual theft of posters from
the Paris hoardings reflected a fierce interest in
posters and seeing a marketing opportunity to
capitalize on that demand, the publisher, Chaix,
introduced a smaller version of the best of those
posters, which were made available via
subscription. Subscribers received four posters
per month, each a smaller full color lithograph of
the larger version. Since the publication lasted five years, a subscriber throughout the entire run received a total of 240 posters. Additionally, Chaix issued 16 special posters. Thus, a complete run of posters from Les Maîtres de l'Affiche ("Masters of the Poster") consists of 256 posters. Among the many poster artists represented in Les Maîtres de l'Affiche were Lautrec, Mucha, Cheret, and the American, Will Bradley. Our set contains 259 posters. It lacks only special poster three, by Jules Cheret, and includes two copies each of poster 49 by Cheret, poster 50 by Eugene Grasset, poster 51 by J.-L. Forain and poster 52 by Bradley. Finding a set this complete has become increasingly difficult owing to the propensity of owners to break them up to sell individual plates. With all lithographs fine, our set, bound in two matching volumes, is rarely found.