Les Caractères (Choix de pensées et de Portraits) Lithographies originales de Henri Charousset.

AN OUTSTANDING COPY OF THIS BEAUTIFUL BIBLIOPHILE EDITION OF LES CARACTERES, illustrated with 75 color lithographs by HENRI CHAROUSSET and, in this special copy, SIX ORIGINAL FULL-PAGE DRAWINGS. Edition limited to 140 numbered copies printed on fine Lana wove paper. Like most bibliophile societies, Les Centraux Bibliophiles would celebrate the publication of their annual livre de peintre with a gala dinner, at which the members would bid on preparatory drawings and extra suites. Jean Curral, for whom this copy was printed, bought one of the 20 complete suites of the 75 lithographs (printed in black and bound in at the end), five preparatory drawings (three bound in with the preliminaries and two bound in with the suites), and a magnificent full-page portrait of La Bruyère (bound in at the front). The menu for the dinner, illustrated with an additional lithograph by Charousset, signed and inscribed to Curral, is also bound in. Folio. ELEGANTLY BOUND BY GILBERT BONTAZ (signed) in full forest-green morocco with a large rectangle of golden silk brocade on each cover. Top edge gilt, other edges uncut. Original wraps and backstrip preserved. Housed in a beautifully-decorated morocco-lined slipcase. A bit of wear to joints of binding, else FINE AND BRIGHT.