Lot n° 129
Estimation :
2000 - 3000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 1 264EUR
Jean COCTEAU.
La Danse de Sophocle.
Paris, Mercure de France, 1912.
In-12 : lavaliere half-maroquin with corners, spine ribbed, untrimmed, gilt head, covers and spine preserved (Semet et Plumelle).
First edition.
One of 7 copies on Hollande paper (nº 6), the only deluxe edition.
Autograph signed letter following three verses of Virgil from the Bucolics:
Adspice, convexo nutantem pondere mundum
Terrasque, tractusque maris, coelumque profundum
Adspice, venturo laetantur ut omnia saeclo.
Accept this Hollando-Hellene dance my old Pierre, with a heart like mine because it is a moved heart that offers it to you
Jean 1912
Attached is the autograph postcard originally addressed with the copy:
I am impatiently awaiting your printing.
P.S. The Mercure having printed the Hollandes at seven copies I do not give any of them except for two, among which yours. Hence the delay. Have you got the ordinary book? I have asked for it. Love, Jean.
To which Pierre, whose literary judgment was so important to him, did Jean Cocteau offer one of the only two copies on Hollande paper that he had - knowing that the other was addressed to his mother? Presumably Pierre Mortier (1882-1946), director of Gil Blas, in which Cocteau had published one of his first poems in 1909. Mortier also worked for Comoedia and was responsible for correcting the proofs of Le Prince frivole.
The origin of the quotation on the title page is corrected by Cocteau's hand. The poet still uses this broad curly handwriting imitated by Anna de Noailles.
A very good copy.
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