RANFT. - BOURGES, Élémir. — Le crépuscule des dieux.

1925 Eaux-fortes en couleurs de Richard Ranft. With 31 full-page and 31 smaller original color etchings. 259 pp., 1 leaf. Large 4to. Maroon morocco, both covers richly gilt in a classicist style, edges gilt, orig. illus. wrappers bound in, sign. by (Charles) Weckesser in gilt on the front-turn in. In matching slipcase. Paris, le livre contemporain, 1925. No. 50 "ad personam" of 119 numbered copies. The etchings were printed by Porcabeuf, the text by the Imprimerie Nationale, Paul Gallimard and Pierre Dauze were responsible for the production. The novel by E. Bourges (1852-1925) is an early document of the Wagner cult not only for its subject matter; even the composition follows Wagner's style, using the technique of the "leitmotiv". It was first published in 1884, and was hailed as a masterpiece; Cocteau still called it an "oeuvre magnifique" in 1923. The Swiss artist Richard Ranft (1862-1931), who illustrated the novel first, catches the "décadence" perfectly. - Fine copy, bound by the famous Belgian bookbinder Weckesser. - Monod 1779; Vollmer IV, 17. MODERN ILLUSTRATED BOOKS (1900-1999) ;