BELVILLE Eugène Suite de six menus en couleurs.

First edition, limited to 500 copies.

As suggested in the title, this edition contains six menus, each being dedicated to a specific subject: Water; Wine; Bread; Salt; Soup; Coffee [L’eau ; Le Vin ; Le Pain ; Le Sel ; La Soupe ; Le Café].

The subject of each menu is taken up by a vignette printed in black, followed by a beautiful fin-de-siècle floral illustration in colour. The upper part of each sheet for the menus was left blank and could be completed on request. The verso is again decorated with a fine and large Art Nouveau border leaving space for the details of a banquet menu.

Eugène-Auguste Chevassus, known as Eugène Belville (1863-1931), a painter, decorator, draughtsman and teacher, began his career as a painter-draughtsman in 1886. He turned to furniture design in 1896 and the Gouffée cabinetmaking firm produced most of the furniture until 1904. He also designed covers for the magazine L’Image (1897), the magazine Art et décoration mentioned him as Secretary of the Société des artistes décorateurs in 1901. In 1922 he was appointed director of the newly established École des Arts appliqués à l’industrie.

Fine copy, complete.