Falbalas and Franfreluches

Paris: Meynial, 1925. First Edition. George Barbier. A complete and excellent set of the five annual issues illustrated with a total of sixty beautiful pochoir plates, complete with decorated pochoir title pages.

'Falbalas and Franfreluches' (Frippery and Finery: Fashion Diaries) represents a literary and artistic collaboration of unusual elegance and sophistication. French illustrator, George Barbier (1882 - 1932) spared no effort in the making of this beautiful collection, using the finest pigments and up to thirty stencils per print to create images of the highest quality reflecting fashionable themes of the day. The plates portray romance amidst exotic lands and ages past, including a native American idyll on the Missouri, a languid mistress cocooned in a hammock in the tropical Antilles, high baroque debauchery, and, of course, a myriad of lovers depicted in Paris at the height of the chic 1920s. Each annual includes twelve pages of fine writing by Barbier's contemporaries in the Parisian scene including work by the great French novelist, Colette (1873 -1954), and the brilliant comic actress, Cecile Sorel (1873 - 1966).
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A famed designer with many celebrated works in his portfolio, ‘Falbalas and Franfreluches' was the one publication project George Barbier ever worked on that was entirely his own, his playful masterpiece. Barbier retained creative control over the design and print-making production process; the result is a magnificent testament to pochoir printing and art deco design. Five annual issues, bound in their original glassine decorated pochoir wrappers (each issue comprising twelve letterpress pages with a separate decorated title page and twelve pochoir plates measuring 246 x 155 mm). All issues remain fine and fresh, lovingly preserved in a felt-lined black cloth clamshell box with paper label to spine.

All five volumes are in fine condition. An excellent set.