LYDIS, Mariette, illustrator. COLETTE (and WILLY). ~ Claudine à l’école; Claudine à Paris; Claudine en ménage; Claudine s’en va. Paris: Éditions de Cluny, [1939].
4 vols, large 8vo (230 × 170 mm), pp. 239, [3]; 186, [4]; 174, [4]; 160, [4], plus 48 plates each in two states (one monochrome, one colour), plus four original drawings, signed (bound as a frontispieces to each volume) Uncut in contemporary orange half morocco by Semet & Plumelle, spines gilt, matching slipcases. A handsome copy.
First edition with the Lydis illustrations, of Colette’s coming-of-age novel (first published in 1900-3 with debatable contribution from her then-husband, Willy). This is copy number 47 of 100 on Lafuma with plates in 2 states, after copies on Japon and Hollande, of a total edition of 1585 copies on different papers. Though not called for copies on Lafuma, this copy has four original drawings bound as frontispieces, each signed by the artist. Three of them are of Claudine herself, the fourth, a delightful cat.
There was mutual admiration (and perhaps more) between Colette and Lydis, the former having written an admiring note on the artist for the programme of the 1934 Bal des petits lits blancs, which Lydis had illustrated.