ROBERTS (Jack). Celeste the pink hippopotamus. Text and images by Jack Roberts. A. Tolmer. Publisher. Paris. [1926]. In-12 (18 x 19 cm). (24) pp. : first cover lithographed and varnished, the second one, of superior format, made of a strong cardboard covered with illustrated paper in two shades of pink. (Binding of the publisher). Small Art Deco album and yet so great for its rarity, its images and its story. Jack Roberts (1894- ?) had studied at the Beaux-arts in Paris, in 1913-1914, and, after his fruitful collaboration with Tolmer, which ended in 1932, his creations appeared in many fields: advertising, decoration and illustration. Book entirely lithographed in pink and black on an elegant grey paper. Lithographs in the text, on the text, full page and on the double page. The text depicts a delightful Céleste, a hippopotamus born pink. He saves two explorers in their autochenille, puts on the run ferocious cannibals, dances a dishevelled foxtrot with the prettiest negro, reduces a frightful dragon to a flat sausage, is arrested by the French gendarmes who lock him up in the Jardin des plantes. The layout is as perfect as the animation of the story. Alfred Tolmer wanted to give seduction and novelty spirit, never at the expense of elegance. Very well preserved.