ATTRACTIVE ILLUSTRATED SET OF DUMAS’ CELEBRATED CRIMES

DUMAS, Alexandre (Père). Celebrated Crimes. Philadelphia: George Barrie, (1895). Eight volumes. Octavo, mid 20th-century three-quarter red morocco gilt, raised bands, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt. $2500.

Limited “De Luxe Edition on Imperial Japan,” number 93 of 500 copies, of Dumas’ fascinating accounts of famous criminals and their crimes, with 49 photogravures in double suite after etchings by noted artists, elegantly bound.

"French illustration of the Belle Epoque had an international vogue… The most spectacular example of French influence, however, was the firm of George Barrie and Son of Philadelphia… Robert Barrie scoured Paris in the 1890s to find illustrations which his firm employed in its editions of Balzac and other French authors" (Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book, 377). This set features illustrations in double suite—one of each suite on Japan vellum and one mounted proof on India paper—by such renowned, turn-of-the-century French artists as Jacques Wagrez, Ricardo de los Rios, and François Prodhomme. Dumas, among the most popular French authors of the 19th century, first published these dramatic accounts of the Man in the Iron Mask, Mary Queen of Scots, the Borgias, Martin Guerre, and others in 1839-41; the first English translation appeared in London in 1843. Mahaffey, 153. Bookplates.

Fine condition.