General Antiquarian Books and Literature
The Duke of Gloucester's Copy
ALBIN-GUILLOT, Laure (and others). Aspects de la France in R[epublique] F[rançaise]. Cet ouvrage a été édité par le Gouvernment Français a l'occasion de la visite en France de Leurs Majestés Britanniques le Roi George VI et La Reine Elisabeth. 19-22 Juillet 1938.
Paris: Georges Lang. 1938.
£998
Folio. Original stiff card and plain cream wrapper; illustrated with 101 photogravures, including 14 by Laure Albin-Guillot, other photographers include Giraudon, Bulloz, Chevalier and Le Boyer; a fine copy in the original cloth-lined boards portfolio, with the armorial bookplate of the Duke of Gloucester.
Limted to 1000 copies, this being "exemplaire no. 247 imprimé spécialement pour Son Altesse Royale le Duc de Gloucester".
The first section of this publication on the delights of France is Aspects de la France, comprising 13 photographs of French scenery by Laure Albin-Guillot (there is one other photograph by her later in the volume).
Albin-Guillot (1879-1962) was a well-known commercial photographer in France in the 1920s and 1930s who also produced some personal work of very high quality. She photographed many French artists, authors, dramatists, fashion designers, etc., during the 1930s, 40s and early 50s, one of the most famous of these portraits being that of a smoking Jean Cocteau. In 1936 she illustrated Paul Valéry's book Le Narcisse, using the model and actor Michel Lemoine. She was also a noted exponent of photomicography.
