Capitale de la douleur

Name: Capitale de la douleur
SKU: 27905
Author: Paul Éluard

Paris, Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue française, (September 8) 1926.

1 vol. (160 x 215 mm) of 151 pp. and 1 f. Black morocco, covers decorated with two broad bands of vellum bordered with a red box-calf fillet, title in black Oeser leather underlined with a blind-stamped star and 4 fillets in gilt, blind, red and black; doublures and endleaves of ochre suedine, gilt title, top edge gilt, original wrappers and spine preserved (binding signed by J. Anthoine-Legrain).

First edition.

One of 109 deluxe réimposé copies. Nominative copy, printed for M. P. Deflandre (no. LXXXV).

Signed presentation inscription: “à René Gaffé, Paul Éluard.”

Éluard’s exchanges with the Belgian collector René Gaffé date from the second half of the 1920s, when André Breton and Paul Éluard met the founder of L’Écho belge and introduced him to African art. Gaffé went on to build a collection centered on the Surrealist group, notably through members who offered him copies directly from their own libraries.

René Gaffé owned two copies of Capitale de la douleur: in addition to this one, bound by Jacques Anthoine-Legrain, Pierre Legrain’s stepson, he had another copy bound in 1931, this time by Paul Bonet (reproduced in Bonet’s Carnets, pl. 22, then in the Gaffé sale, pl. IV). Both volumes are inscribed to him, the second further enriched with a manuscript copy of the poem “Volontairement” facing the half-title.

A choice copy, with a very fine provenance.

#27905

Back