Beschreibung:

[SCHMIED, FRANCOIS-LOUIS] WILDE, OSCAR. Deux Contes. Paris: F.-L. Schmied, 1926. One of 150 copies (plus 12 copies for participants), of which this is press-numbered 70, signed on the terminal colophon leaf in pencil by Schmied. Full polished chestnut morocco by G. G. Levitzky, decorated to an Art Deco design, signed by the binder on the lower front dentelle; the spine and covers with an onlaid rectangular central panel of dark brown morocco with two gilt wrap-around bands of a repeating chevron motif formed from twelve fillets, the bands connected by a series of small rectangles placed diagonally in the onlaid panels. Edges of boards with a single gilt rule, pale brown morocco doublures surrounded by wide dentelles with a design of six interrupted gilt rules, matching silk endpapers, marbled blanks; all edges gilt (that on the foredge on the rough), housed in a harmonising slipcase and chemise. 10 1/2 x 9 inches (26.5 x 23 cm); original ornamented card covers bound in, [x], XXX, XXVI, (x) pp., with four hors-texte full-page plates. Each page in the first conte contains a vertical illustration, and those in the second a horizontal one (these are in the form of bandeaux extending from margin to margin), elaborate initials and other decorative elements, all rendered in color wood engraving by Pierre Bouchet and Théo Schmied after F.-L. Schmied's designs. Light wear to the chemise and slipcase, the binding itself essentially without wear, the interior with occasional minor offsetting but a fresh example . The production of this work by Schmied was partially underwritten by the politician and diplomat Louis Barthou, the American financier Frank Altschul (later proprietor of the Overbrook Press) and similar notable bibliophile patrons. This copy was sumptuously custom bound by Levitzky, close to the date of publication, to a geometric design that echoes Schmied's ornamentation of the text. Nasti 20; Ritchie 18. C