SPL Hand Coloured Rare Book Collection Featuring Norman R Bobins

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BENOIT, Pierre.
Le Puits de Jacob.

The author recounts the tribulations of his heroine, Agar Mosès, a young Jewess who begins very poorly in life as a seamstress. While wearing a dress for a music hall actress (Lina de Marville), she meets Mrs. Nathalie Lazaresco who has detected dancing talents in her protege. Agar, now Mademoiselle Jessica, began her career at the Casino de la Tour-Blanche in Salonika, then from the Belle-Vue casino in Alexandria via the Miramar in Beirut; she failed in 1923 in Caïffa. There, a client, Isaac Cochbas, administrator of the Jewish colony Le Puits de Jacob in Mandatory Palestine, a stone's throw from Nablus, noticed her. One thing leads to another, and Hagar ends up joining this movement which aims to establish the Jewish people in this region and devotes its existence to it.

Published
Paris: Michel Albin, rue Huygens 22, 1927.
Plates
28
Binding/Size
S=8vo
Value
0-5000
Published
Paris: Michel Albin, rue Huygens 22, 1927.
Ref
1570

[Jacob's Well.] Squared octavo, printed folded wrapper. Publisher's cream-coloured supple slipcover ties. A magnificent edition is illustrated by the Polish-American artist Arthur Szyk, with 28 colour miniatures, including one title vignette, 15 decorative letters, and 12 plates. Colours by Saude. The illustrations are rich in colour and detail and are inspired by the medieval tradition of illumination. 327 copies printed; this one is of 300 on Arches vellum (number 272). By one of the masters of miniatures of the 20th century. A touching inscription by Benoit. Coloured plates in order: 1. Title page. 2. Coloured initial letter to Chapter 1. 3. Full page illustration. "Un coup de fusil anonyme, comme il en sort un peu de partout..." 4. Full page illustration. "La personne a laquelle elle s'adressait était une grosse dame..." 5. Coloured initial letter to Chapter 2. 6. Full page illustration. "Du pont du paquebot qui l'emportait, Agar regardait Constantinople..." 7. Coloured initial letter to Chapter 3. 8. Full page illustration. "Vous m'avez fait demander, Monsieur?..." 9. Coloured initial letter to Chapter 4. 10. Full page illustration. "Ils étaient onze, huit hommes et trois femmes." 11. Full page illustration. "Comment s'appelle cette plaine? demanda Agar..." 12. Coloured initial letter to Chapter 5. 13. Full page illustration. "Mlle Henriette était toute vêtue de noir, a la façon d'une diaconesse." 14. Coloured initial letter to Chapter 6. 15. Coloured initial letter to Chapter 7. 16. Coloured initial letter to Chapter 8. 17. Full page illustration. "Et voici que, soudain, elle se trouvait en presence des éternels Isaac Laquedems." 18. Coloured initial letter to Chapter 9. 19. Coloured initial letter to Chapter 10. 20. Full page illustration. Il pleuvait le matin ou Agar arriva a Paris." 21. Coloured initial letter to Chapter 11. 22. Full page illustration. "Vous etes fier d'être juif, Paul Elzear, n'est-il pas vrai?' 23. Coloured initial letter to Chapter 12. 24. Coloured initial letter to Chapter 13. 25. Coloured initial letter to Chapter 14. 26. Full page illustration. "La soir rouge de cette robe japonaise rend votre chair plus mate encore que de coutume." 27. Coloured initial letter to Chapter 15. 28. Full page illustration. "Maitenant, on ne voyait plus, a l'arrière du fourgon de queue, que le fanal rouge..."