BONNARD, Pierre (1867–1947); VERLAINE, Paul (1844–1896). Parallèlement. Paris: Ambroise Vollard, Imprimerie nationale, 1900.

With Imprimerie nationale vignettes. There are two states of the cover of Parallèlement. The publisher, Ambroise Vollard had sent the text to be printed at the Imprimerie Nationale, whose authorities had only the title of the book and had assumed they were printing a geometry textbook. After the French government uncovered that the book contained depictions of lesbian imagery, the book was immediately recalled and Vollard was forced replace the original vignette of the Imprimerie nationale bearing the image of the French Republic with another vignette by Bonnard. This lot includes the replacement vignette by Bonnard on the cover.

Quarto (296 × 242mm). No. 49 of 170 copies printed on vélin de Hollande from a total edition of 200, 109 original lithographs by Pierre Bonnard in pink, 9 woodcut ornaments by Tony Beltrand after Bonnard in black, original printed wrappers bound in, Imprimerie nationale vignette on upper wrapper and title-page (occasional offsetting, light toning and spotting). Contemporary brown crushed morocco by Chambolle-Duru, covers ruled in gold, spine lettered in gold with decorative gold-tooling in compartments, dentelles in gold on turn-ins, edges gold, marbled endleaves (boards slightly bowed).