ELUARD (Paul). - Lot 96

ELUARD (Paul). Cours naturel. Paris: Éditions du Sagittaire, [1938]. - In-8, 197 x 157: frontispiece, 118 pp. (5 ff. last 2 blank), printed cover. Lemon jansenist morocco, smooth spine, framed in lemon morocco inside, decorated with two double gilt fillets, blue moiré silk lining and endpapers, gilt head, untrimmed, cover and spine preserved, lined slipcase (Louis Christy). First edition of this collection of poems by Paul Eluard, dedicated to his wife Nusch. A precious press copy, HC justified, with an autograph letter signed by the author on the false title, addressed to a certain Roger whose name has been carefully erased. But it contains the RARISSIVE ORIGINAL EAU-FORTE BY SAVADOR DALI (1904-1989), usually found only in the top 15 copies. This is clearly an unretained or trial edition, as it shows a fingerprint at the bottom left corner and black spots at the bottom right edge made during printing. The copy is also enriched by ONE CHINESE PRINT OF THIS EAU-FORTE, signed by Dali in the plate, which signature does not appear on the final prints, and bearing the handwritten note "Bon à tirer". This print is accompanied by a second copy of the title leaf, also printed on chine. Also added at the head is the book's insert, mounted on tabs. A very fine copy bound in the period by Louis Christy, who died in 1940, one of the official bookbinders of the Surrealist writers, having produced bindings based on models by Georges Hugnet.