Beschreibung:

Charles Ferdinand Ramuz, André Roz (illustrator), Georges Cretté (binder)
Farinet, ou la fausse monnaie. Paris: Les Bibliophiles Franco-Suisses, 1938
ONE OF 115 COPIES, 4to (335 x 260mm.), printed on grey paper, decorative initials, colour border in colophon, 27 colour-printed wood engravings by Paul Baudier after André Roz, 24 full-page. together with 2 additional suites of the plates, one on grey paper and one on fine cream-colored stock, a 10-plate series deconstructing the sequence of separate colour applications needed to produce the illustration on p. 23, together with FOUR ORIGINAL PAINTINGS BY ROZ, all studies for illustrations in the book, DARK GREEN CRUSHED MOROCCO, ONLAID AND GILT, BY GEORGES CRETTÉ (stamp-signed “G. Cretté succ[esseur] de Marius Michel), covers and smooth spine with wrap-around design of onlaid black morocco strips creating a lattice of squares, the green morocco within these squares tooled with interlocking gilt circles, title stamped in black on spine, turn-ins with continuation of the onlaid black strips, fine hunter green suede doublures and endleaves
A UNIQUE COPY belonging to Jules Exbrayat (see Provenance), with four original paintings by André Roz. This is therefore the ultimate bibliophile’s copy of a bibliophile’s edition, featuring not only fine printing. bold typography, beautiful illustration, and a handsome binding, but also a plethora of desirable extras, including additional suites of plates, original paintings, and correspondence relating to the creation of this work.
Based on a true story, Farinet, or The Fake Money is the tale of a counterfeiter known as the “Robin Hood of the Alps”, who minted coins from a vein of gold he found in the mountains. Although born in Lausanne to a bourgeois family, Swiss novelist Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz (1878–1947) set most of his works in the countryside and Alpine villages, focusing on working people bravely facing the challenges of surviving in a sometimes harsh environment. Like Ramuz, Parisian-born painter André Roz (1897-1946) preferred rusticity to the city, and his Impressionist-style illustrations are a perfect complement to the text here. The beautifully realised project was bound by Georges Cretté (1893–1969), one of the most prominent artisans of his period. He was a brilliant student at the Ecole Estienne, where he studied under Godefroy and Masset, and he was invited to join the firm of Henri Marius Michel, where he soon established himself as that famous workshop’s outstanding gilder. After World War I, he took over the day-to-day business, and succeeded Marius Michel as head of the firm upon the master’s death in 1925. At first, Cretté adhered to the Art Nouveau floral designs that had characterized Marius Michel bindings, but as Duncan & De Bartha report, “he gradually began to promote his own more traditional geometric style, which was built around compositions of gold and blind-tooled fillets. His virtuosity as a gilder drew comparisons with the 19th century master gilder, Trautz, and earned him the sobriquet ‘maître des filets.’”
PROVENANCE: Jules Exbrayat (co-founder and president of Les Bibliophiles Franco Suisse), bookplate, WITH TWO TYPED AND TWO AUTOGRAPH LETTERS, SIGNED, FROM THE AUTHOR, and TWO AUTOGRAPH LETTERS, SIGNED, FROM THE ARTIST to Exbrayat; program and list of lots displayed at an Exposition sponsored by Les Bibliophiles Franco-Suisses in February 1939; black-and-white photograph of the Exposition laid in, two-page print of handwritten introduction by Ramuz, with a full-page colour wood engraving on the recto of first leaf, and menu of the society’s dinner held at the Hôtel Plaza-Athénée, with colour-printed escutcheons at head and foot