Traite d'Enluminure d'Art au Pochoir

Paris: Editions de l'Ibis, 1925. Full Description:

SAUDÉ, Jean. Traité d'Enluminure d'Art au Pochoir. Prédédé de notes par MM. Antoine Bourdelle, Lucien Descaves...et S E M. Aquarelles de Beauzée-Reynaud, Benedictus, Bourdelle, Brunetta, L. Chapuis, Dorival, Abel Faivre, Halouze, Lepape, Madelaine, Morisset, Rodin, S E M et Vignal. Reproductions d'après Jean Fouquet, A. Besnard, Image de Georgin. Paris: Aux Éditions de l'Ibis, 1925.

First edition. One of 500 numbered copies, this being number 464 signed by Saudé. Folio (12 7/8 x 9 7/8 inches; 328 x 251 mm.). [6], xxv, [1, blank], 74, [6] pp. With twenty pochoir plates (numbered I-XX), two of which are in two states, one in three states, and two in four states. One of the four states is lacking from the Roses. So as it should be 20 pochoir plates in 30 states, present copy is 20 pochoir plates in 29 states. With twelve pochoir vignettes of various scenes and fourteen line illustrations of the mechanics of making pochoir. Additionally with pochoir illustrations on front and back cover of portfolio, endpapers and publisher's box.

Loose, as issued, in the publisher's quarter blue cloth over blue board portfolio with pochoir illustration by Benedictus on the front cover and a pochoir illustration by L. Chapuis on the rear cover. Endpapers are also pochoir by Chapuis. Front cover and spine lettered in gilt. Front board a bit rubbed rubbed, but not affecting the image. In the original pochoir slipcase. Slipcase with a small amount of chipping. Overall, a crisp, clean copy of this seminal work on the technique and importance of pochoir illustration.

"Between the World Wars the French took this ordinary craft [stencilling] and raised it to a high art, notably in the livres d'artistes movement. Used for making coloring illustrations, the stencil process (pochoir in French) brought brilliance to illustrated books never seen before and very little since. Stencilling is labor intensive; colors are applied by hand and, as with many handcrafts, went out of use by the beginning of World War Two. Jean Saudé, most influential in the development of pochoir into an art, and author of Traite d'Enluminure d'Art au Pochoir, Paris, 1925, believed that the technique could serve as a hyphen between the artist and the public, and proclaimed that pochoir through its dependence on manual application in the reproduction process made possible true art instead of altered reproductions. Saude believed that pochoir was the only process which translated the artist's original intent from the first to the last print because it was done entirely by hand" (V. Gerry, Stencilling). Saudé specialized in finely illustrated books and collector's pieces but this book is his greatest legacy. It was the only contemporary book on the mechanics of pochoir and remains its finest example.

HBS 69144.

$3,500.