SCHMIED, François-Louis, illustrator. LUCIEN-GRAUX [Dr. Lucien Désiré Prosper Graux]. ~ Le Tapis de prières. [Paris: Schmied, 1 October 1938].
Large 4to (340 × 250 mm), pp. 75, [3] plus 10 full page colour wood engravings (3 of which form elaborate initial letters for the text opposite). Uncut and loose as issued in original plain wrappers with a further wood engraving to the upper cover. ‘Instructions to the binder’ slip preserved (loosely inserted), orginal linen covered chemise and plain slipcase. Very minor light thumbing to the wrapper and half-title, but a superb copy.
One of 125 copies (this an unnumbered hors série copy) of a superb illustrated book with colour wood engravings designed by art deco master François-Louis Schmied and engraved by his son Théo, each printed successively from multiple blocks.
Author Lucien Désiré Prosper Graux known as Lucien Graux (1878-1944) was a French doctor, entrepreneur, art collector, bibliophile, writer, publisher and member of the French Resistance in his final years (he was arrested and murdered at Dachau in 194). He had amassed one of the finest French book collections of his era and operated a small publishing house, the ‘Amis du Docteur Lucien-Graux’. This orientalist fanstasy Le Tapis de Prières was the house’s 24th production, the first in quarto. Carteret, Illustrés IV, p. 255, ‘édition originale et premier tirage recherché et coté’; Ritchie, François-Louis Schmied, p. 41.