À la recherche du temps perdu

Name: À la recherche du temps perdu
SKU: 24625
Author: Marcel Proust

Du côté de chez Swann — À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs — Le Côté de Guermantès — Sodome et Gomorrhe I — Sodome et Gomorrhe II — La Prisonnière (Sodome et Gomorrhe III) — Albertine disparue — Le Temps retrouvé

Paris, Éditions de la Nrf, 1918-1927.

13 vols. (165 x 215 mm). Janseniste tan morocco, smooth spines decorated with mosaic motifs in colored gilt box calf and gilt letters, the series together forming the author's name and title; hazel suede doublures and endleaves bordered with a beige box-calf fillet; edges gilt on the rough; original wrappers and spines, chemises and slipcases repeating the decoration of the spines (R. Desmules).

First edition of the complete series published by Éditions de la N.R.F. One of copies 109 to 133 among the first copies réimposé in quarto format, printed on vergé Lafuma-Navarre paper. The first three volumes bear the no. 10, then CII, while the following five volumes, printed nominatively for M. André Lefèvre, all bear the no. XXV.

A remarkable copy, superbly bound by René Desmules, considered by Fléty to be “one of the most skillful binders of his time.”

Born in 1909, Desmules trained in Noulhac’s celebrated workshop before continuing with Maylander, Legrain, Gruel and Marot-Rodde. In 1941 he opened his first workshop in Paris, at 15 rue Carrier-Belleuse, later moving to 29 rue Cambronne, where he worked until 1975. He quickly became one of the leading craftsmen-binders called upon by the great decorators to execute their designs: Rose Adler, Anthoine-Legrain (son of Pierre Legrain), Paul Bonet, Bonfils, Creuzevault, Madeleine Gras, Georges Leroux and Thérèse Moncey, among others, entrusted their creations to him. In doing so he worked closely with the greatest gilders and decorators of his day, André Jeanne (active between 1929 and 1970), André Maylander (brother of the binder Roger Maylander) and Collet — an experience that later gave him complete freedom when composing lettered designs, as in the mosaic titling of the present copy.

Each volume here bears on its spine one element of a masterfully conceived title: the challenge of reconciling the number of letters (36) with the number of volumes (13) had to be overcome. The chemises are titled identically, and the volume numbers at the foot of the spines are also repeated beneath each slipcase. Finally, the arrangement of gilt and mosaic small ornaments in cream box calf is reproduced identically on each chemise.

Desmules executed this design for only three other sets, in wine-lees or gray morocco (Pierre Leroy, 100 livres, Sotheby’s, June 2007, lot 88; R. et B. L., Sotheby’s, October 2014, lot 151; Michel Audiard, May 2016, Pierre Bergé et associés, no. 58).

A particularly desirable copy.

#24625

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