Jan 29, 2019 - Sale 2497

Sale 2497 - Lot 101

Price Realized: $ 13,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 6,000 - $ 9,000
(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, publisher's original pictorial wrappers, unusually bright and fresh, as is the interior; publisher's gilt-lettered, embossed textured burgundy protective folder, some minor wear. Paris: Piazza, 1897

Additional Details

mucha's stunningly beautiful masterpiece of book illustration, in the original folder. number 247 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. Number 141 of 252. Mucha / Bridges L11, Triumph des Jugendstils 110-112, Spirit of Art Nouveau 69.