COLETTE La Treille Muscate. Eaux-fortes par Dunoyer de Segonzac.

Garvey, The Artist and the Book, 280 ; Monod, 3047.

First edition. It is illustrated by André Dunoyer de Segonzac with a total of 36 etchings, 18 of which are full-page (13 hors texte) and 18 vignettes.

This deluxe edition with text printed by Aimé Jourde, engravings were printed by Vernant and Brunel. The engravings were created in 1930 by Dunoyer de Segonzac in the homonimous Treille Muscate where he regularly visited his friend Colette. Limited edition of 165 copies on Hollande van Gelder, this one of 100 copies (numbered 51 to 150, number 129).

An exceptional copy, enriched with a double deciation on one of the first blank leaves, signed by both author and artist.

“Pour Ernest Simon, vrai ami des livres, avec toute ma sympathie et ma très vive reconnaissance. A. Dunoyer de Segonzac, juin 1942”

“Pour Ernest Simon, une “Treille” que la main de Segonzac a placée dans l’éternité, en souvenir de Colette”

Large original and signed drawing

The copy is further embellished with a large original Indian ink drawing signed by Dunoyer de Segonzac, depicting Colette’s property in Saint-Tropez with the autograph note “pour la Treille Muscate de Colette. A. Dunoyer de Segonzac”. In November 1925 Colette bought a house in Saint Tropez, which she later named “La Treille Muscate”. She spent a lot of time there until 1939, when she sold the house to the actor Charles Vanel.

“Segonzac had long wanted to illustrate Colette, his neighbor at St. Tropez. This pictorial portrait of her villa was the first of their collaborations” (Garvey).

A fine copy.

Provenance: François Ragazzoni (book plate, library sold in Paris, 2003, lot 226).