Rare n°9 Jacques Nam and Colette Chats Signed Limited Edition Portfolio, 1935

Jacques Nam "Chats" Signed Limited Edition, "Time Spent with Cats is Never Wasted". This Album was his private possession.

The result is that I moved in the US bringing his "life in boxes" with me; along with more art pieces from this amazing person. NAM, Jacques Lehmann and COLETTE, (Sidonie-Gabrielle). Paris: Chez l'Artiste Jacques Nam, circa 1935-38. Large original portfolio (18" x 21") with printed label, containing six loose folio gatherings, five original aquatints (as issued).

Portfolio is in poor condition (please look at the photos), but kept the inside safe; plates, text and watercolors all in very fine condition. A splendid production, very scarce and exceptionally desirable. Limited first edition of this portfolio of five wonderful large color lithographic portraits of cats, each signed and numbered by Jacques Nam, accompanied by amusing commentaries by Colette, this copy one of only 25 issued on Imperial Japon paper with multiple original watercolors of cats in the margins of each leaf of text, initialed by Nam.

"Time spent with cats is never wasted" (Colette). Jacques Nam was known primarily for his paintings and illustrations of animal subjects, mostly cats, which found their ways into the Salon d'Automne and the National Gallery of Beaux Arts.

During the early 20th century, Nam provided illustrations for such French magazines as La Vie Parisienne and Le Petit Journal Illustré de la Jeunesse. Colette's works "express a sensibility shaped by the style of the belle époque and informed by a sensual responsiveness to the life of nature and the world of childhood" (Drabble, 213). No one who is fond of cats can afford to miss her descriptions of "Le Siamois, " "Simplette, " and Fastagette. This is copy number 9; the 25 copies in this limitation are numbered 6-30.

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