SEM (GOURSAT, Georges) (1863-1954). SEM's album. Preface by - Lot 278

SEM (GOURSAT, Georges) (1863-1954). SEM's album. Preface by Paul Berthelot. La vie mondaine à la fin du XIXe siècle vue par SEM, copy enriched with a signed autograph letter. Bordeaux, Librairie Nouvelle, 1889. In-folio (500 x 325 mm). Paperback, cream cover with title in Japanese characters enhanced with palladium. 2 ff. n. ch., 11 plates. 8 pages of advertisements at the end of the book. Cover faded with marks and stains, corners a little corroded, two small tears to spine; a few snags and tears to edges of covers and plates. The last plate has a 6 cm tear, not missing. First edition and first print run of this splendid SEM album featuring 11 large plates, one of them double: original lithographs enhanced in color. Portrait-caricatures of : Marquis du Vivier, Elvita Guera, Dick de Gernon, Maître Peyrecave, etc. Copies with autograph dispatch from SEM are rare.