Item nr. 167496 Papillons Metamorphoses Terrestres des Peuples de L'Air. Amedee VARIN, Eugene NUS.
Papillons Metamorphoses Terrestres des Peuples de L'Air.
Papillons Metamorphoses Terrestres des Peuples de L'Air.
Papillons Metamorphoses Terrestres des Peuples de L'Air.
Papillons Metamorphoses Terrestres des Peuples de L'Air.
Papillons Metamorphoses Terrestres des Peuples de L'Air.
VARIN, AMEDEE

Papillons Metamorphoses Terrestres des Peuples de L'Air.


VARIN, Amédée. Papillons Metamorphoses Terrestres des Peuples de L'Air. Two volumes. [4], 232, [4]; [4], 258, [4] pp., illustrated with 35 hand-coloured engraved plates, including frontispieces and title-page plates, and with the portrait Cazotte opposite vol. II, p. 152, not included in the list of plates. 8vo, 262 x 175 mm., bound in publisher's polychrome bindings depicting Varin decorations and illustrated vignettes. Paris: Gabriel de Gonet, 1852.

First edition, with points: "1852" on next to the printer's name "De Soye" at the end of both volumes. One of the most marvelously surreal butterfly books, Varin's Papillons is a potpourri of fantasy, imagination and humour. The 35 hand-coloured plates of anthropomorphic butterflies, rendered in the vein of Grandville by Amédée Varin (1818-1883) are brilliantly conceived and executed.

The text by Nus and Meray includes a chapter entitled "La Vestale du Rio Colorado" and features a hand-coloured image of a tattooed Native American brave butterfly. A very fine copy in the rare polychrome binding; the hand-coloured Varin engravings with particularly careful colouring.

Vicaire VI, 246-7. Brivois 315.

Item nr. 167496
Price: $7,500.00

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