Ode to a Loved Woman

Ode à une femme aimée… (original French annotation)

Etching on simili-japon wove paper.
Plate from Poèmes by Sappho, illustrated by Lydis, and published in Paris for an amateur in 1933.  Trial proof with lovely plate tone, unusually annotated, signed and dated by the artist.  Unique as such.  Aside from the book edition of 45, which is also very scarce.  The last known book to come to auction sold for $6500 in 2013.

A faint annotation in the lower right sheet corner indicates that this was one of two trial proofs, and that this one was printed “dry and wiped” (“épreuve sèche et essuyée”), and that another was

Signed, located and dated “Paris 1932”, titled “Sapho”, and profusely annotated in pencil.