MORAND (Paul). - Lot 175

MORAND (Paul). Charleston, U.S.A. Liège: À la lampe d’Aladdin, 1928. — In-8, 215 x 160: (4 leaves, first 2 blank), 42 pp., (4 leaves, last 2 blank), 5 plates, illustrated cover. Unbound, cover pasted in, in the publisher’s illustrated cardboard slipcase. First edition of this short story by Paul Morand, featuring an African-American dancer who, in 1920s Harlem, is initiated into voodoo practices. The illustrations include 6 original lithographs, 5 of which are insert plates, a two-color composition on the cover, and a black-and-white one on the slipcase, by the painter, draftsman, and lithographer BÉCAN (1890–1943), the pseudonym of Bernhard Cahn. One of 76 copies printed on antique Vidalon vellum (no. 44), enhanced with two sets of supplementary plates, on Japanese paper and China paper. The copy is very well preserved despite the soiled covers of the slipcase. It is complete with both fabric ties.