Dec 01, 2016 - Sale 2433

Sale 2433 - Lot 97

Price Realized: $ 17,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 15,000 - $ 25,000
SCHMIED, FRANÇOIS-LOUIS; and Joseph-Charles Mardrus. Le Paradis Musulman. 31 color woodblock illustrations on Japan paper, heightened in gold and silver, 8 of which are full-page and 5 of which are signed by Schmied, and numerous intricate initial letters; additional suites in color and black bound in rear. Large 4to, beautiful binding by septier in full green morocco with intersecting rectangles of gold and silver, spine with raised bands, gilt borders and lettering; doublures of patterned silk bordered by triangles and semicircles in silver, gold, and turquoise; all edges trimmed and gilt; corresponding morocco-edged and marbled board slipcase. Ex-Libris Albert Dubosc, gilt-stamped at foot of front doublure. Paris: F. -L. Schmied, 1930

Additional Details

schmied's art deco masterpiece of design, color printing, and publishing. number 20 of 157 copies of the book, bound with one of only 25 separately printed suites. Both colophons are signed by the artist. A labor of love for Schmied who painstakingly cut numerous engraved blocks to achieve the most intricate of details. Each paragraph was marked with an initial letter against a color square and all the text was set upon a gentle tint block specially cut for each page. "The title-page illustration was the most intricate of all Schmied's illustrations, requiring some forty-five different blocks to achieve the lacquer-like quality he wanted. And then it took almost two months to print that single page"--Ritchie 35. He often liked to portray himself in his works and this book contains a depiction of him seated in Moslem costume, painting, and in the last illustration in the book where he is departing with the finished book under his arm.