FRANCE Anatole - Albert MORAND. Crainquebille. Without place or date, circa 1930; 85 pp. in-8, bradel red morocco, three gilt fillets framing the boards, spine decorated throughout with gilt fillets, gilt inner fillets, gilt head, cover and spine (Farez). A unique copy, entirely calligraphed in black ink and decorated with drawings by Albert Morand. The volume features a gritty short story by Anatole France: the itinerant merchant Crainquebille, victim of a combination of circumstances, is arrested by a touchy policeman, sentenced by an unjust magistrate and nothing can stop his descent into hell. Albert Morand's illustrations, which have never been published before, include two frontispiece portraits of the author and the illustrator, a full-page wash, and 59 charcoal drawings in the text, which are fairly close to Steinlen's style. Albert Morand is presented by Bénézit as an interior painter, associated with the Salon National des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1896. He illustrated several works, including the Histoire de la prison de Saint-Lazare du Moyen âge à nos jours by Léon Bizard and Jean Chapon (1925) and La Chanson des gueux by Richepin (1927). A very fine copy.