Paul Verlaine — Poèmes Saturniens, 1914 — Signed Arts & Crafts Mosaic Morocco Binding — Lazarus Goldschmidt Provenance

VERLAINE, PAUL (1844–1896). Poèmes Saturniens. Paris: Albert Messein, 1914. Illustrated by Henri Bouché-Leclercq. Number 408 of 500 copies on Vélin, from a total edition of 550.

A particularly handsome illustrated edition of Verlaine’s first and foundational collection of poetry, preserved in an elaborate signed Arts and Crafts binding of full dark brown morocco with extensive gilt tooling and colored morocco inlays.

The covers are centered by a large circular composition of intertwining gilt-tooled stems and foliage, punctuated by delicately inlaid roses and leaves in contrasting pink and colored morocco. The design continues across the spine, which is divided into six compartments by five raised bands, with the title lettered in gilt and the remaining compartments decorated with related floral tooling and mosaic onlays.

The interior is equally accomplished, with richly patterned watered-silk doublures and endleaves, gilt-decorated turn-ins, and gilt top edge. The binding is signed “AL” at the lower corner of the rear board.

The result is an unusually successful marriage of Verlaine's Symbolist poetry with the organic floral vocabulary of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Illustrated Limited Edition

The Messein edition was limited to 550 copies, comprising 50 copies on Japon and 500 on Vélin, of which this is number 408.

Henri Bouché-Leclercq’s illustrations are printed in warm tones and delicately heightened with color by pochoir, creating a restrained decorative accompaniment particularly well suited to Verlaine’s poetry.

First published in 1866, Poèmes Saturniens was Verlaine’s first collection of verse and introduced many of the qualities that would establish him as one of the central figures of nineteenth-century French poetry and a crucial precursor of Symbolism.

Provenance: Lazarus Goldschmidt

With the engraved bookplate of Lazarus Goldschmidt (1871–1950), the distinguished Lithuanian-born Orientalist, Talmudist, bibliographer, translator and noted bibliophile.

Goldschmidt was one of the major Jewish scholars of his generation. Among his most important achievements was the monumental first complete German translation of the Babylonian Talmud, produced over several decades. His scholarly interests extended to Hebrew bibliography, Ethiopic literature, the Koran and early Hebrew printing, and he assembled a substantial private library reflecting his life as both scholar and collector.

The presence of Goldschmidt’s bookplate gives this copy particularly appropriate bibliophilic provenance: this was not simply a decorative volume, but a book owned by an important twentieth-century scholar and serious collector of books.

Edition: No. 408 of 500 copies on Vélin; total edition 550
Illustrator: Henri Bouché-Leclercq
Binding: Full morocco with gilt tooling and colored morocco onlays, signed “AL”
Doublures and endleaves: Patterned watered silk
Provenance: Lazarus Goldschmidt, bookplate
Condition: Spine slightly rubbed, otherwise near fine; housed in a custom cloth-lined slipcase.

A distinctive example combining Verlaine, early twentieth-century French book illustration, a finely executed signed Arts and Crafts binding, and notable bibliophile provenance.