Allard (Roger) - Lot 73

Allard (Roger) Les Élégies martiales. Camille Bloch, Paris, 1917. 30 woodcuts by Raoul Dufy. First edition (18 x 11.4 cm). Binding: 19th-century bronze embossed Japanese paper bradel, acanthus leaf scrolls, label with gold title on spine, Japanese gold paper endpapers, untrimmed, covers and spine preserved (Alidor Goy). The only copy on chine (no. I), the only one of the edition with two suites of Raoul Dufy's magnificent woodcuts (on chine), including one with the striped woodcuts of these mocking poems on war. Beautiful mailing to publisher Camille Bloch, accompanied by 4 autograph letters signed by Dufy and 2 autograph letters signed by "brigadier Allard", the publishing contract and other documents. This unique copy on chine (before 35 on japon, including 5 with a single suite, 35 on large white vellum from Rives, and 180 on tinted vellum from Rives) is dedicated to Camille Bloch, the book's publisher: "to Camille Bloch, the only publisher who buys books to read them, and to read them after having edited them. Roger Allard brigadier pilot February 1917" It contains: Two suites on chine, including one of the striped woodcuts. 4 autograph letters signed from Raoul Dufy to Camille Bloch ([1917]-1920, 6 pages in-8°). 2 autograph letters signed by Allard to Camille Bloch about the work (1917, 3 pages of various sizes), one with an autograph receipt signed by Raoul Dufy and countersigned by Allard. The publishing contract handwritten by Allard and signed by him and Camille Bloch. 2 autograph receipts signed by Allard to Bloch. 2 proofs of a woodcut by Dufy not included in the book. An offprint (4 pages in-4°) of Le Monde nouveau, a poem by Roger Allard entitled Ode à la paix française (May 1, 1919). Before joining the NRF in 1919, where he edited the Peintres français nouveaux series, Roger Allard (1885-1961) had been a member of the Abbaye de Créteil group. Mobilized during the Great War in the infantry and then the air force, he was twice wounded. Les Élégies martiales is one of the finest books of poems written in collaboration with a painter that appeared during the war. The 30 woodcuts by Raoul Dufy, perfectly in tune with the poems' slightly mocking nostalgia, make this book, despite its small format, one of the painter's most important. Provenance: Camille Bloch; Marcel Lecomte.