Lot 46: MASSON, Andr‚ (1896-1987, artist) and Robert DESNOS (1900-1945). C'est les bottes de 7 lieues Cette phrase "Je me Vois". Paris: l'Imprimerie Leibovitz for ditions de la Galerie Simon, 1926.

4o (324 x 240mm). Title printed in red and black with woodcut 'H[enry].K[ahnweiler].' publisher's device by and after Andr‚ Derain. Etched frontispiece and 3 plates by and after Masson printed by l'Imprimerie Charlot FrŠres, 3 printed in bistre. Contemporary black morocco-backed paper-covered boards, the spine lettered in grey, original printed wrappers bound in (extremities a little rubbed). FIRST EDITION, LIMITED TO 112 COPIES, THIS NUMBER 53 OF 90 COPIES ON PAPIER VERG‚ D'ARCHES SIGNED BY MASSON AND DESNOS. C'est les bottes de 7 lieues... was one of the earliest books illustrated by Masson, preceded only by G. Limbour's Soleil bas (Paris: 1924) and M. Leiris's Simulacre (Paris: 1925). These two works were published by la Galerie Simon, which had been established in 1920 by the celebrated dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler and his partner Andr‚ Simon upon Kahnweiler's return from his wartime exile, and were probably collaborations instigated by Kahnweiler, who had become Masson's dealer. However, it is likely that C'est les bottes de 7 lieues... was initiated by Masson, who knew Desnos both as one of his large circle of literary friends and as a co-contributor to the official surrealist magazine La R‚volution surr‚aliste (1924-1929). As Sapphire notes, the illustrations for this work were 'Masson's first ''automatic'' etchings, done with as much fluidity as the lithographs for Simulacre which were in a medium corresponding more closely to drawing on paper. Unlike the illustrations for Masson's first two books, these tend to be matched more closely to the subject of the poems' ( Andr‚ Masson The Complete Graphic Work I, p.42), perhaps due to the artist's sympathy with the work of a poet who was one of the most successful surrealist practitioners of 'automatic' writing. A FINE EXAMPLE OF AN IMPORTANT SURREALIST WORK BY TWO LEADING PRACTITIONERS OF AUTOMATISM. Only two copies are recorded at auction since 1975 by ABPC. Chapon Le Peintre et le livre p.285; Pompidou Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler p.186; Royaumont Andr‚ Masson 3; Sapphire and Cramer Andr‚ Masson The Illustrated Books 3; Sapphire Andr‚ Masson The Complete Graphic Work 12-15; Wheeler Modern Painters and Sculptors as Illustrators (1947), p.107.