HISTOIRE CHARMANTE DE L'ADOLESCENTE SUCRE D'AMOUR. [A CHARMING HISTORY OF SWEET ADOLESCENT LOVE]

Paris: F.-L. Schmied, 1927. FIRST EDITION. No. 50 OF 170 COPIES, SIGNED BY SCHMIED. 318 x 241 mm. (12 1/2 x 9 1/2"). 8 p.l. (first four blank), 145 pp., [9] leaves (last four blank).
Unbound as issued in original printed paper wrappers. With 14 full-page color wood engravings (including the frontispiece signed in pencil by Schmied) and 635 color panel borders, line fillers, and tailpieces in the Art Deco style, all by Schmied. Recto of limitations page with a facsimile inscription by the author to Schmied. Carteret IV, 263. ◆Short ink mark to margin of title page, just the faintest isolated smudge or freckled foxing, otherwise a very fine copy, clean and fresh, with the fragile wrapper unsoiled and remarkably well preserved.

This is an excellent example of the impressive book arts productions of François-Louis Schmied (1873-1941), a man who raised Art Deco to its highest level in the field of bibliophilic publishing in France and someone who generally was responsible (as here) for every aspect of the production of his books. He engraved all of the woodcut decorations and plates for "Histoire," and printed them himself as well as designed the layout of the text, which was printed with the assistance of his son Théo and P. Guillemat. The text here is a love story set in the Middle East, the work of Dr. Joseph-Charles Mardrus (1868-1949), who described himself as "Muslim by birth and Parisian by accident." Born in Egypt and educated in Lebanon, the physician and eminent Orientalist was a fixture in the intellectual circles of Paris, where he helped to inspire the rage for all things Oriental. He produced a well-received, unexpurgated translation of "One Thousand and One Nights," and was commissioned by the French government to produce a translation of the Koran. He gives full credit to Schmied for the realization of the present work in his inscription, which reads: "Dear Schmied, it is to please you that this unpublished text has been developed. Without you, without your enthusiasm, it would still be in nothingness. Your friend, J. C. M.".