Ramiro, Erasthène & Louis Legrand (1863-1951): Faune Parisienne.
 
Paris, Gustave Pellet, 1901. 4to. 26,5 x 19 cms. [iv] + 104 pp. With 20 original engravings (16 in colour including the one on front wrapper, and some in the text), each engraving with an additional proof. 40 illustrations in text, engraved in wood by Lemoine. Text in French.
 
No 56 of only 130 copies, printed on heavy vélin d'Arches paper, with an extra suite of proofs in black of each engraving.
 
Bound with wrappers in full red morocco richly gilt, inner gilt dentelles, top edge gilt, else uncut, marbled endpapers (Gustaf Hedberg, Stockholm).
 
Provenance: [Frötuna manor, Uppland, Sweden], the book collection of Count Oscar Bernadotte af Wisborg (1890-1977), grandson of king Oscar II, or possibly his wife Marianne, née De Geer af Leufsta (1921-2018).
 
The most sought-after luxury book with illustrations by Louis Legrand, French artist of the "Belle époque", whose art is often compared to that of Toulouse-Lautrec (also published by Pellet). Legrand’s prints ”especially provide a sense of decadence; they have been compared to those of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, though his drawings of the Moulin Rouge, the can-can dance and the young women of Montmartre preceded Toulouse-Lautrec's paintings of similar scenes. He made over three hundred prints of the night life of Paris. They demonstrate ’his remarkable powers of observation and are executed with great skill, delicacy, and an ironic sense of humor that pervades them all".
 
Mahe, Bibliographie des livres de luxe de 1900 à 1928, III, 202.