Les Pastorales; Traduites intégralement par Gabriel Soulages. Bois originaux de J.-B. Vettiner

Paris: René Kieffer, 1923. Limited Edition. Near fine. Jean-Baptiste Vettiner (1871-1935). 4to, 10 1/4 x 7 7/8 inches (260 x 200 mm); pp. iv + 156. 32 woodcuts by Jean-Baptiste Vettiner. Binding by René Kieffer in dark blue crushed morocco, title in gilt, with ONE OF THE ORIGINAL WOOD-BLOCKS HEIGHTENED WITH GILT AND INSET INTO THE UPPER COVER. Blue striped endpapers, a slight one-inch split along the front hinge of the pastedown and ffep, top edge gilt, rest uncut, blue silk ribbon page marker. Original printed upper paper wrapper and unprinted paper spine bound in. This is copy no. 251 of 500 copies. With an ORIGINAL PEN AND INK SKETCH BY THE ARTIST bound in. A beautiful copy of a classic collection of pastoral poems and elegies by the Sicilian poet Theocritus (c. 300 B.C. - c. 260 B.C.), know for his epic and pastoral works in Greek. The energetic woodcuts that illustrate each of the stories are the work of Jean-Baptiste Vettiner (1871-1935), a French artist and engraver who studied at the École des beaux-arts de Bordeaux, moved to Paris and became active in the early 1920s in the Société de la gravure sur bois originale (Authentic Woodblock Engraving Society). His work on the Pastorales is considered one of his masterpieces, and this copy is adorned by one of the original wood-blocks on the front cover of its handsome dark blue morocco binding by René Kieffer.