Carmen.

Paris.: Editions de la Roseraie., 1926.. Full vellum with Yapp edges, the binding painted by Martin (see below) and signed in ink at lower left, original silver printed wrappers and backstrip preserved, grey silk moiré doublures, marbled endpapers, t.e.g., polished paper chemise with gilt title and matching wool-lined slipcase.. 4to. (255 x 205 mm).. Engraved frontispiece, decorative printed title with colour vignette 5 engraved plates (each in two states) and 34 etched vignettes, 28 in colour by Charles Martin; a separate suite of all the vignettes with additional title is bound in at the rear of the volume, the final illustration in the suite is present in the suite alone. Charles Martin's illustrations for Mérimée's Carmen in a beautiful painted binding.From the edition limited to 176 numbered copies, with this one of 150 on vélin de Rives teinté and with an extra suite of the plates printed in black.Martin's painted binding, signed on the front cover at lower left and executed in black ink with additional highlights in gilt and colour depicts (for the front board) a man and a woman, the man with a gold earring and a cigarette between his lips, the woman - it seems likely that this is a portrait of Carmen herself - with elaborate coiffure and a green leaf between her stylised lips, her elaborate mantilla picked out in gilt; the rear cover depicts a landscape with mounted caballero and a hacienda with a cloud in outline behind; the spine features the title in magenta ink and a small vignette at the foot.