Abrégé de L'Art Poétique François par Pierre de Ronsard
London: Eragny Press / Hacon and Ricketts, 1903. Lucien Pissarro. Limited Edition. 8vo, 8 1/2 x 5 5/8 in. (215 x 143 mm); 44 pp. Edition limited to 226 unnumbered copies on Arches hand-made paper, of which 200 for sale. Publisher's Hawthorn paper binding, in buff and green, stone spine with gilt title on front cover. Text in "Vale type" decorated with floral borders on title and facing page; headpieces & large tailpieces and initials designed by Lucien Pissarro and wood-engraved by his wife Esther. Eragny's mark on title. Endpapers toned as typical, spine soiled and rubbed, chipped with 1.5 inch missing at foot, chips at corners and top edge, binding tight; pages clean with only a couple of spot and some toning at stitching.
[Tomkinson,p. 60, no 19; Beckwith 99; Ransom p.262, no. 14; Urbanelli pp. 34 & 122].
Lucien Pissarro's design for the first pages of Ronsard's Abregé de l'art poétique (Summary of the Art of Poetry) is organized like a carefully tended garden. The floral borders framing each page are rectangular and symmetrically placed. The centered pressmark on the first page balances the facing text block. Each element relates to the others, and the design as a whole projects a sense of harmony that is sympathetic with Ronsard's advice to poets: to labor, and polish their work as a gardener would prune his plants. This is the only Eragny text that might be described as a teaching volume, because it is not a poem in itself, but a guide to writing. Thomas Bird Mosher's also took the Eragny Ronsard as teacher, using the book as a design source more often than any of the other twelve Eragny books in his collection. (Beckwith, Alice H.R.H., Illustrating the Good Life: the Pissarros' Eragny Press, 1894–1914. New York: Grolier Club, 2007. No. 99)
The ERAGNY PRESS was founded by Lucien and Esther Pissarro. The Eragny Press specialized in small hand-made books in limited print runs featuring superior coloured wood engravings. The press was active between 1896 and 1914 and produced 32 titles. Its style was inspired by the work of William Morris at the Kelmscott Press and also by French Impressionist painters. The aesthetics of William Morris’s can be seen in the incorporation of decorative woodcut borders, woodcut initials and the conceiving of each opening as a unified design, rather than as two separate pages.
Like William Morris at Kelmscott, Lucien Pissarro designed a special typeface for his use at the Eragny Press. He called it “Brook” and it was inspired by typefaces designed by the French Renaissance engraver, printer and type designer Nicolas Jenson (1420-1480).
Speaking of Lucien's and Esther's direct involvement with every phase of the production of their books Lora Urbanelli writes "it was precisely that immense involvement that made their books, above any other, the only "genuine Arts and Crafts Product. (L. Urbanelli The Book Art of Lucien Pissarro. Wakefield RI & London: Moyer Bell, 1997. P.29.
Condition: Very good.
Item number: 762
Price: $800.00
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