HIPPEAU, Jean-Paul. (KIPLING, Rudyard). ~ Les Solitudes de Purun Bhagat suite de vingt-quatre planches encrées. [Montmartre: Éditions de la Lucarne ‘sur presse à bras’, 11 December 1927].
Small folio (282 × 188 mm), pp. [12], [4], plus 24 coloured woodcut plates (numbered in pencil). Loose, as issued, marbled paper wrappers renewed to style with marbled paper matching the original preserving original label. One of 117 copies on various papers.
An exceptionally rare edition from a remarkable Montmartre private press, presided over by the eccentric but much respected poet Jean-Paul Hippeau (sometimes known as ‘Harry Hops’). His productions were all printed in letterpress on a handpress, with coloured woodcuts in a primitivist style — the best of the woodcuts, found in the 1927 Solitudes de Purun Bhagat are subtly inked in the Japanese manner.
From a good family, Jean-Paul Hippeau,was born in 1879, son of a consul and musician. Raised in Beauce and educated at the École des Sciences politiques he turned his back on conventional society at a young age and devoted himself to writing and art, living alone in considerable poverty. His charismatic and enigmatic presence was recalled by a contemporary: ‘C’est un lion, avec un béret de velours et un gilet à fleurs. Il imprime ce qui lui plaît sur un méchant gaufrier. Fastueux et pauvre, il incarne le dernier des romantiques…’ (Le Matricule des Anges 237, Éric Dussert)
The colophon reads ‘à la vue de Montmartre, à l’heure où le crépuscule joue avec la Butte sur les nuées changeantes des ciels parisiens … Adieu, rude labeur qui m’a procuré l’illusion d’un beau voyage’. Worldcat records the Bibliothèque nationale copy only (there is also a copy at Boston Athenaeum).