Japan. Fables

Selected Fables by J.-P. de Florian. Illustrated by Japanese artists under the direction of P. Barboutau. Tokyo. Librairie Marpon & Flammarion, E. Flammarion Succ. Paris. (1895). Two large oblong octavo volumes (34.2 x 24.6 cm) paperbacks, sewn in the Japanese style, of (16) ff. double each. First illustrated covers. Modern protective shirt with ribbons. Original edition. Book printed on Japanese paper. Each sheet is double, consisting of a page folded on itself because the printing was only done on one side. Remarkable illustration, woodcut, in black and in color (28 full-page prints + 2 covers), produced by three Japanese artists: Ka-no Tomo-nobou, Kadji-ta Han-ko and Kou-bo-ta To- yes. The fables had been translated into Japanese, illustration, engraving and printing were done in Tokyo. This work was published after the edition of La Fontaine's Fables, published in the same spirit in 1894, at the instigation of P. Barboutau, a French collector of Japanese prints and art who resided in Japan for seven years. This publication bears witness to the interest aroused by Japanese culture in France at the end of the 19th century. Luxury print in oblong quarto format which presents the prints on full page; the publisher also offered this work on a more common paper in two volumes in-8 à la française, the prints then being folded. Very nice copy.