LARGE ORIGINAL UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT OF CHILDREN’S NARRATIVE POEMS, ILLUSTRATED WITH ORIGINAL FULL-PAGE WATERCOLORS BY LUKA, JANIN AND CHALANSON

LUKA, Madeleine, JANIN, Jean and CHALANSON, Jean Claude. Histoires (unpublished illustrated manuscript of three children’s poems). No place, circa 1950. Tall folio (12-1/2 by 16 inches), late 20th-century glossy white paper boards, decorative strip, original acetate wrapper. $4200.

Three wonderful narrative children’s poems in manuscript, boldly illustrated with 34 large, original, full-page pen-and-ink colored drawings by Madeleine Luka, Jean Janin (one drawing signed) and Jean Claude Chalanson, nearly all brightly hand-colored by the artists.

Hand-written with the titles “Histoire de la Pauvre Claire,” “Histoire du Vilain Jules,” and “Histoire de Madame Lune et de Monsieur Soleil,” these three wonderful narrative poems are illustrated with full-page watercolor drawings by three French artists, perhaps the best known of whom is Madeleine Luka. Luka was married to Robert Kula, but took the nom d’artiste “Luka”— an anagram of her husband’s surname. She exhibited her work Paris, Nice, Switzerland, New York and elsewhere between 1928 and 1976. Artist Jean Janin, whose works in oil have brought fine prices at auction, illustrated “Villain Jules.” Jean Chalanson apparently provided the illustrations for “Mrs. Moon and Mr. Sun” and seems to have produced the binding as well. A cursory search of children’s literature suggests that these three poems have never been published, nor have the illustrations appeared elsewhere. Texts in French.

Occasional inoffensive glue mark and paper repair (not affecting drawings). A beautiful and fanciful unpublished children’s manuscript with original illustrations by noted French artists in fine condition.