RICHEPIN JEAN [Gabriel Belot] - Lot 333

RICHEPIN JEAN [Gabriel Belot] The Songs of Miarka, the Bear Girl Paris, 1923, H. Blanchetière. Relieur d'Art. In-4 brown half-maroquin with corners, smooth spine richly decorated with red and green mosaic interlacing, date on tail, gilt head, covers and spine preserved. Binding signed Blanchetière. 54 uncounted leaves. 30 drawings, 14 ornate letters and 17 original woodcuts by painter-engraver Gabriel Belot. Edition of 171 copies, one of the copies on vellum, here unjustified. Copy enriched with 1°two original watercolors, (one on a title print on Japon ancien; the other on the title print on vellum); 2°a beautiful letter from Belot to Blanchetière adorned with a watercolor depicting the bookbinder in his studio. "How's the throat? Pas trop de tabac, incorrigible fumeur qui n'aime pas le tabac ...mais qui fume pour fumer...Artiste va!"; 3° an autograph dedication from the publisher and the author. 4° in fine are bound eight woodblock test prints. The copy also contains the book's subscription form. Remarkable work by Gabriel Belot (1882-1962), a self-taught worker who established himself as one of the masters of wood engraving, which was enjoying a renaissance at the beginning of the 20th century. "This rugged Burgundian is a poet and xylographer who knows all about decoration and the finer points of his craft. He has wonderfully captured the popular soul, and his woods have the flavor of the old images of yesteryear." Raymond Hesse. Carteret V-169 / Mahé III-269 / Monod II-9709