*Stéphane MALLARMÉ. L'Après-midi d'un Favne/ Eglogve/ with frontispiece, fleurons & cul-de-lampe. Paris, Alphonse Derenne, [April] 1876; gr. in-8 in ff. covers in Japan gray felt with title in gold print. Old fawn half-long-grain folder with corners, modern slipcase. First edition printed in 195 copies, including 20 in Japan. One of 175 on tinted Van Gelder laid paper (watermarked), numbered 60 in red ink on the bookplate mounted from above on the bl. f. where, in the lower right-hand corner, an autograph ex-dono signed in burgundy red ink (different from the number): "Très-sympathiquementoffert by Stéphane Mallarmé". No name scratched out. In fact, the poet was preparing dedications for possible distribution by the publisher. Thus, the Édouard-H. Fischer (no. 163) bears the inscription in black ink: "Hommage respectueux et sympathique / de / Stéphane Mallarmé" (Galantaris 2014 p. 448). Édouard Manet following The Raven. "To offer to three friends, whose names are Cladel, Dierx & Mendès, this little verse (which they liked) adds relief to it; but it's just as well that my dear Editor should seize it from the rare public of amateurs: the illustration made by Manet orders it."The poet wrote in his dedication, which he took up again and completed in his 2nd edition in 1887 (see 35/1), because, even if not illustrated by Manet, "I don't want him absent from any future republication: as he defended my work, he blasphemes it forever". This beautiful invocation was published in Mondor and Jean-Aubry's Pléiade (OC, 1974 p. 1332) and reprinted by Galantaris; we will, however, correct an erroneous quotation mark that makes the reading equivocal (Galantaris 2014 p. 457). The part added in 1887 is not reproduced by Marchal (OC, I 1230). 4 illustrations on wood (engraver still unidentified. We think of Alfred Prunaire, Mallarmé's friend and neighbor): - two in texto: a bandeau (bath scene of 3 naiads) and a cul-de-lampe (bunch of grapes). - flying frontispiece on Japon vergé pelure (rural wildlife scene) watercolored in pink. - The famous Ex Libris on Japon vergé felted (printed in red and black) with the herbaceous vignette watercolored in pink. Numbered 60 in red ink. Of the three that can be found watercolored in pink by Manet, two usually are, as here. The printed price label of 15 fr. on Japon feutré, like the cover, is glued, as it should be, in the upper right-hand corner of the 3rd cover with the two pink and black silk cords that, fixed under the label, cross the cover. Listing it in 1899 in his famous Bibliographie des Poésies chez Deman, Mallarmé ironized: "appeared separately, decorated inside by Manet, one of the first expensive booklets and candy bag, but dreamy and a little oriental with its "Japanese felt, titled in gold, and tied with pink and black Chinese cords", as expressed in the poster*; then M. Dujardin made [1887, see 35/1], of these verses untraceable anywhere but in his photogravure [35/2], an out-of-print popular edition." * The interior flyer announced: "in a gold-titled Japanese felt cover, with braids of rose-de-Chine silk". Was there only one color initially? The 175 were advertised on Japon léger and Hollande at 12 and 15 fr "With or without the ties", she specified, and 20 grand Japon at 25 fr. In fact, the Japon léger was suppressed and the ties-cordonnets were missing. Mallarmé requested them in 1887 from Vanier, who had bought back the unsold copies of Faune: "[pour la] fourniture de cordonnet de soie, dont le prix, j'ai obtenu ce renseignement, s'élève, quoique vous en [sic] puissent en prétendre, qu'à trente-huit francs" (Marchal Corr. 854). See the excellent reproduction of the poster in Nectoux, p.29. The fine pink silk thread, which is missing from the bound copies, was knotted in 2 small holes on either side of the cover fold and held the 4 double ff. It has come loose on one side and has naturally browned the fold at the bottom of the central section, weakening the other ff. in the same place (three have been lined with a strip of Japon pelure). One might prefer a Van Gelder sheet in its delicate original condition to a Japon pelure bound late by Bonet. Exhibition: Ten centuries of French books. Museum of Fine Arts Lucerne, July-Oct. 1949, no. 252. Provenance: Robert von Hirsch Library, Basel. Drouot, exp. Claude Guérin et Marc Loliée, 12/6/1978, no. 1630 (bookplate). - Julien Bogousslavsky, "Grand amateur européen". Sotheby's, 19/06/2014 (bookplate).