MAUPASSANT (Guy de). Boule de suif. Paris, Armand Magnier, 1897. In-8, red morocco, framed with a havana or fawn mosaic listel and multiple gilt fillets, ornate spine, morocco spine flaps decorated with multiple gilt fillets, lining and endpapers lined with silver-grey embroidered satin, gilt edges on witnesses, cover and spine (Mercier Sr de Cuzin). First edition illustrated with 58 compositions by François Thévenot wood-engraved by A. Romagnol, including one in colour on the cover, also reproduced here as a frontispiece. Edition of 301 copies, this one of the 12 first copies on antique japon, containing the suite of fumés on japon pelure paper, and a triple suite of hors-texte. It also contains a suite of in-texts on japon and an original watercolour by the artist on the false-title. Prospectus on japon bound at the end. An exceptional copy in an elegant binding by Mercier, Cuzin's successor. From the libraries of Victor Mercier (bookplate) and Alexandre Roudinesco (1967, I, n°158), with bookplate. Carteret, IV, 269.