Nouvelles Heures et Prières Composées dans le Style des Manuscrits due XIVe au XVIe Siècle.
Paris: Gruel et Engelmann, 1901. Square 16mo. (iv), 176, (8)pp. A delightfully executed reproduction of a traditional book of hours-cum-devotional, updated to match a more modern, pre-Raphaelite aesthetic. Details, including initials, florals, and flourishes, are hand-gilded, and sumptuous pages favor the Belle Époque's adoration of romantic medievalism. Punctuating the text are three full-page illustrations of biblical scenes, including the Last Supper and the Nativity. The book is meant to be as much religious souvenir as family heirloom; portraits of the recipient's grandparents, with their names and years of life, act as bookend parerga. Added to the end of the book are several ruled sheets for "souvenirs de famille," and prefacing all of this hereditary paraphernalia is a dedicatory page of Marie-Louise Lucien-Lefebvre, whose monogram is onlaid in leathers and edged in gilt at both covers. Bound in full green morocco, with spine in six compartments and spine-title gilt. Gauffered gilt edges and turn-ins, silk doublures, and ribbon page marker. Very minimal frays to silk, slight rubbing to lower edges, else fine. Held in a silk-lined box. Item #32082
Price: $950.00