BUFFET (Bernard) - GIONO (Jean). Research of the purity. [Paris : Henri Creuzevault, 1953]. - In-folio, 379 x 254 : (48 ff., first blank), illustrated cover. Hardback parchment, first board decorated with a tree made of glued black box pieces, second board including the black ink drawing of two hands linked in X, smooth spine, untrimmed, cover and spine preserved, black box spine and cover bands folder, slipcase (period binding). Rare edition, printed at 160 copies on Rives vellum, prefaced by Pierre Bergé and illustrated with twenty-one original etchings by Bernard BUFFET (1928-1999), of which one on the cover, seven on full page, three on double page and ten in the text. All copies are signed by the author and the artist at the justification. One of the twenty nominative copies reserved for the contributors of the work, enriched, like the first copies, with a suite of engravings on ivory Rives and an ORIGINAL DRAWING SIGNED BY BERNARD BUFFET ON THE FULL PAGE. This drawing represents a male head in profile, it is dedicated by the artist to the person for whom the copy was printed, and dated 1953 . It is enriched with the invitation to the presentation of the book at the publisher on May 12, 1953.