BILHAUD (Paul). - Lot 38

BILHAUD (Paul). Le Hanneton illustré. S.l., circa 1890. - In-folio manuscript, painted cloth boards on first cover, smooth spine (period binding). Beautiful, perfectly calligraphed manuscript of Paul Bilhaud's monologue "Le Hanneton", which was performed at the time by the Comédie-Française actor Coquelin Cadet and first published in 1879. It consists of 17 pages glued to blue paper. The text is written in red and accompanied by a number of original, humorous drawings, some of them collaged, in black and red ink, by Émile Clément, who also composed a gouache work on the first cover. The pages are numbered from 14 to 16. This must be an error, as the text is complete. The boards are very damaged, cracked at the edges and badly damaged at the spine. Stains and a few scratches on the boards, affecting the gouache.