Long description:

This is an exacting facsimileand first re-print overallof Baron Adolph de Meyers especially rare book Le Prélude ? lapr?s-midi dun faune , first published in 1914 in a handcrafted edition of 1,000. Today only six copies are known to exist, and this Steidl edition recreates a book from Karl Lagerfelds personal collection.

De Meyers book is a privileged record of Vaslav Nijinskys performance in the first ballet he choreographed: Le Prélude ? lapr?s-midi dun faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun) for Serge Diaghilevs famous Ballets Russes, set to a score by Claude Debussy and inspired by a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé. The ballet debuted in Paris in 1912 and shocked audiences and critics with its eroticism and unconventional choreography. De Meyers 30 photos capture Nijinskys animalistic performance as the faun surrounded by prancing nymphs, and are an important record of Léon Baksts Symbolist sets and costumes. In this new edition Gerhard Steidl recreates the original, published by Editions Paul Iribe & Cie, with as much attention to detail as possible. Le Prélude is a hand-stitched brochure with a hand-folded dust jacket. Iribes collotypes (photomechanical ink prints) on vellum paper are recreated in offset as quadratone prints tipped-in by hand onto Somerset Cotton paper, mould-made by St Cuthberts Millall in a limited edition of 1,000 books.