(MUCHA, ALPHONSE.) De Flers, Robert. Ilsée, Princesse de Tripoli. Additional half-title stamped in blind; 132 color lithographed illustrations and borders surrounding the text, cover, six letters, fleurons, and culs-de-lampe, by Mucha. Small folio, bound in dark blue crushed levant morocco by Bretault (dated 1903), covers and spine with elaborate morocco onlays of red, brown and orange, all edges gilt, minor repairs to top portion of front and rear joints; wide turn ins, patterned silk doublures and endpapers; original pictorial wrappers bound in, clean and bright; morocco-edged slipcase; housed in custom cloth clamshell box. Mucha's beautiful masterpiece of book illustration, in lavish Art Nouveau binding by Joseph Bretault. Number 31 of 252 copies signed by De Flers. One of Mucha's most beautiful, full-concept illustrated books, rich with his distinctive Art Nouveau motifs. The symbols he used illustrate the devotion, tenderness, and suffering of lovers not destined to meet in this world, personified by the beautiful Princess Lointaine. Influenced by the work of Eugène Grasset and Carlos Schwabe, Mucha frames each page with a graphic cord that interweaves, in a different pattern, with the borders on every page. The overall result is his "most complete statement in the Art Nouveau style . . . [and] one of the best examples of total book design" Carteret IV, 162; Alphonse Mucha: The Master of Art Nouveau, p. 103. Mucha / Bridges L11, Triumph des Jugendstils 110-112, Spirit of Art Nouveau 69. Paris: Piazza, 1897