Le Sabbat Ressuscité par Leonor Fini.
Paris: Société des Amis des Livres, 1957. First Edition - Limited. Hardcover. Folio. 15 1/8 x 11 1/4 inches. As issued: loose gatherings of pages within a printed card folder with glassine wrapper, all within a printed cloth portfolio in a printed cloth slipcase. Illustrated with 35 etchings: 10 being full-page drawings of witches, 1 full page drawing "reflecting the spirit of the [witches'] Sabbath" ("reflétant l'esprit du sabbat"); and 24 small drawings of demons and other ghouls. Each etching protected by a loose tissue guard. First edition - first issue. The limitation notice in this issue suggests that the Edition was limited to 105 numbered copies, 75 for members of the Société des Amis des Livres (of which this is one) and 30 for those who collaborated in the project. This was clearly revised once the project had started, and the the number of copies for members increased to 90, and those for collaborators reduced to 15, with the limitation statement in the second issue silently ammended to reflect the change. Leonor Fini (1907–1996) was an Argentinian-born surrealist painter, illustrator, and author, who spent much of her life living in Paris. She was well known in French artistic and intellectual circles, being acquainted with such luminaries as Georges Bataille, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Giorgio de Chirico, Salvador Dalí, Paul Éluard, Max Ernst, André Pieyre de Mandiargues, and Pablo Picasso, to name but a few. In 1956 she drew a series of witches, demons, and other macabre figures, which her friend, the writer, playwright, and exponent of the Theatre of the Absurd Jacques Audiberti (1899 – 1965) made the basis of this book the following year. A beautiful production. The cloth slipcase is overall somewhat darkened, with some rubbing around the edges and a couple of small splits at the folds. The spine of the cloth portfolio is a little discolored. The card folder has one short split at a fold, which has been reinforced (almost invisibly) from the rear with archival quality Japanese tissue. Otherwise the folder, which is still in its original glassine wrapper, is in Fine condition. The pages / plates are all Fine. A lovely example of a rare work. Item #60619
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