Paris: Photo-Club de Paris, 1900. Demachy. Edition Deluxe. Folio, [vi], 96, [97-101] pp., 14 full-page plates on a heavy woven paper, of which 12 are b&w halftones and 2 are photogravures, each with printed tissue guards; 96 b&w halftone photographs in text with elaborate Art-Nouveau borders and unique page designs (mise-en-page). This copy, which is No. 30 of 75 special copies has an additional suite of the 14 full-page plates, printed on a fine tissue which is inset onto a heavy woven paper. Additionally, there are 47 unnumbered leaves, printed recto/verso of the of 96 halftone photographs and borders, printed without the text. Bound in half morocco and marbled paper over boards, with 5 raised bands and titled in gilt on the spine; the original Art-Nouveau printed wrappers are bound in. A few of the printed tissue guards are creased; there is faint spotting or toning on the black margins of some plate mounts, and a few of the leaves are lacking a tiny semicircular divot at the blank fore edge. A very good or better copy. Item #54413

With photographic contributions by P. Bergon, Mme Binder-Mestro, P. Bourgeois, M. Bucquet, F. Coste, A. Da Cunha, R. Demachy, A. Gilibert, R. C. Jacquin, Ledard, E. Mathieu, C. Petit, C. Puyo, W.H. Stewart, E. Wallon and other members of the Photo-Club de Paris.

Imaging Paradise p. 205, "This series of essays on aspects of photographic practice, Esthétique de la Photographie, can be considered the manifesto of the pictorialist movement in France. Its purpose was as much display as debate, published in time to impress foreign practitioners attending the international congress of photography at the Paris World's Fair of 1900. In accord with the subject matter, the book itself is aesthetically pleasing, designed with art nouveau flourishes. Two gravure plates are printed by Dujardin - one work each by the uncontested masters Demachy and Puyo. The remaining twelve plates and imaginatively laid out in-text reproductions, offering a cross-section of work by Photo-Club de Paris members, are printed off the finest halftone blocks then available by the firm of Jean Malvaux of Brussels. Léon Vidal, doyen of photomechanical printing, expressed his parting approval: "Bibliophiles and image connoisseurs of the future will gain subtle satisfactions from photography. The book which these lines conclude fully bears this out." Roosens and Salu No. 8516.

Price: $2,250.00