AUSSOURD, René (binder).

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Les Petites Fleurs de Saint François d'Assise. A spectacular art deco binding by René Aussourd, designed by his client, the leading transatlantic art dealer and collector René Gimpel, and likely retained in Gimpel's personal collection. In 1931 Gimpel commissioned Aussourd to produce another binding incorporating a gilt cross (adorning a volume on Joan of Arc) that eventually passed to his son.In the years leading to the Second World War, Gimpel (1881-1945) worked between galleries in Paris and New York, providing the American elite with European art. Pieces sold by Gimpel now reside in many of the top museums and galleries in the States. During the occupation, he served with the Resistance before being captured, and he died in a concentration camp.Aussourd (1884-1966) was a suitably distinguished craftsman for Gimpel to elect as his binder of choice. He learnt binding from his uncle, Charles Meunier, and was chief gilder for the Chambolle-Duru workshop, before setting up on his own in 1912. While his early work is classical, this volume is a shining example of his unconventional output.Les Petites Fleurs des Saint François is translated from the 14th-century Italian collection of legends concerning the saint. It was published with these fine wood-engraved illustrations in 1913. This edition is dated 1919 on the title page, but the printer's colophon gives a date of 1920. The artist, Maurice Denis (1870-1943), is a pivotal Symbolist painter and theorist. Both his Catholic upb

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