Theatre [SIGNED & INSCRIBED, W/ AN ORIGINAL DRAWING BY COCTEAU.] (2 vols. complete)

[Paris]: Grasset, 1957. Limited first edition. Hardcover. vg+ to near fine. Quartos. Vol.1: 535pp. [3]. Vol.2: 642pp. [3]. Illustrated tan leather boards with lettering and decorative motifs in blue and gilt on the covers and spines. Housed in the publisher's original cardboard slipcase. Illustrated endpapers. #7336 from a limited edition of 8,800 numbered copies printed on Vergé de Voiron paper. This is a unique copy inscribed, signed and dated by the author in pen, accompanied by a striking original drawing in colored pencil by Cocteau, all on the half-title page of the first volume. Pages throughout uncut and unopened.

This fine press 2-volume monograph by the acclaimed French poet, playwright, writer, visual artist and filmmaker Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) collects the entirety of his written plays from 1921-1957. The work is wonderfully illustrated throughout by Cocteau himself, including b/w in-text images as well as an impressive series of 40 plates of color lithographs, interleaved, and printed by the famed Parisian art printer Mourlot Studios. Volume one contains, "Les mariés de la tour Eiffel", "Antigone", "Roméo et Juliette", "Orphée", "La voix humaine", "La machine infernale" "Oedipe Roi", "Les chevaliers de la table ronde" and "Les parents terribles". Volume two contains "Les monstres sacrés", "La machine a écrire", "Renaud et Armide", "L'aigle a deux têtes", "Bacchus", "Théatre de poche", and a final section containing "Scenic and Choreographic Arguments" and a bibliography. Both volumes contain a table of contents at the rear.

Text in French.

Slipcase with some creasing and light smudges. Bindings with a few minor smudges to the covers, and some minor cracking along the front hinge of the first volume. Bindings and interiors of both volumes in overall very good+ to near fine condition. Bindings and slipcase protected in modern mylar.