LA CHARRUE D'ÉRABLE. [THE MAPLEWOOD PLOUGH]

Paris: [Printed at the Eragny Press, Hammersmith, for] Le Livre Contemporaine, 1912. No. 48 OF 116 COPIES, this copy printed for Roger Braun. 217 x 156 mm. (8 1/2 x 6"). 105, [3] pp.
Publisher's flexible green lambskin, gilt lettering to upper cover. Printer's device in colophon, titla page with delicately colored botanical frame set with six vignettes, 18 vignette head- or tailpieces and nine historiated initials designed and engraved by Lucien Pissaro and printed in colors, 12 PLATES BY CAMILLE PISSARO, engraved by Lucien Pissaro and printed in color. The Artist and the Book 247; Tomkinson, p. 66; Ransom, p. 264. ◆Spine lightly sunned, free endpapers with offsetting from doublures (as almost always with this title), just the vaguest hint of foxing, but a very nearly fine copy--clean, fresh, and bright internally, in a binding showing virtually no signs of use.

This is one of the most memorable Eragny books: a private press "artist's book" pairing illustrations designed by Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro with stories of rural life written expressly for those images. The collaboration is immensely charming. According to "The Artist and the Book," "The twelve plates 'hors texte' were designed by . . . Pissarro to be cut as chiaroscuro blocks by his son Lucien. After Camille's death the text was provided to accompany the plates. In designing the book, Lucien wherever possible adapted sketches by his father for the other illustrations." The stories accompanying the plates were written by Émile Moselly (1870-1918), the Prix Goncourt-winning novelist whose works were rooted in the pastoral life of the Lorraine district. Operated between 1894 and World War I by Lucien and Esther Pissarro, the Eragny Press produced lovely little books of the highest quality but in design unlike the other major private presses at work in England. The delicate wood engravings and in general the inclination to be fresh and pretty rather than elegant, grand, or luxuriant gave this press a distinctive place in the movement. Lucien, who studied art under his father, came to England hoping to get his woodcuts published and searching for an opportunity to make lovely books, two goals that were accomplished with the help of Charles Ricketts, the founder of the Vale Press, who shared his newly created Vale Type with Pissarro. Cave says that the Eragny Press books "had a charm and freshness quite unlike anything to be found in the work of any other private press, and in the printing of colored wood engravings in particular the press excelled." This copy belonged to Roger Braun, a noted French collector of illustrated works—book, posters, and menus. Braun was a member of approximately 20 literary and artistic societies, including Le Livre Contemporaine, for which this work was produced..