René CHAR. - Lot 67

Lot n° 67
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6000 - 8000 EUR
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Result : 17 000EUR
René CHAR. - Lot 67
René CHAR. Back upstream illustrated by Giacometti. Paris, GLM, 1965. In-4, white half calf printed with a black monotype, flexible plates in eleven articulated ebony strips, edged in gutter with a rod of the same wood, title label in white calf printed with a black monotype titled in printing ink, back with four sheathed nerves, the two in the centre with semi-circular attachments in brown calf riveted in stainless steel, bi-coloured linings and guards, untrimmed, cover and back preserved, box in brown half calf (Jean de Gonet, 1984). Original edition. Unique edition of 188 copies on Rives calfskin (#47) : it is signed by the poet and dated January 11th 1966, day of Alberto Giacometti's death. 4 superb original copper engravings by Alberto Giacometti. "The poems in this collection "near death" were originally intended to be illustrated by the poet himself, as he had previously done for PAB books. In May 1965 it was decided to call on Giacometti "for one etching, perhaps". There were four of them and Char, who found them "exactly in the spirit" of the texts, made sure that the background was clearly black and not "disunited grey" as it appeared in the first proofs. Giacometti's negative engravings - among the most beautiful he ever made - were his last" (Antoine Coron). Remarkable soft ebony binding by Jean de Gonet. Fabienne Le Bars describes an almost identical binding in 1984, except for one colour detail, but on copy no. 65. It is likely that this is the binding of the Kahn copy, which she was unable to examine. The copy is complete with the printed butterfly announcing: "Alberto Giacometti died on January 11, 1966. Back to front, completed printing at the time of his illness, could not be signed by him." (Coron, 50 illustrated books since 1947, nº 35-Johnson, Artists' Books in the Modern Era 1870-2000, nº 149-Castleman, A Century of Artists Books, p. 191: "Giacometti's typically attenuated figures emerge from a vast void of densel
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