SCHMIED (François-Louis) - KIPLING (Rudyard). Kim. Translated by Louis Fabulet and Ch. Fountaine-Walker. Lausanne: Gonin et Cie, [1930]. - 3 volumes in-4, 306 x 247: frontispiece, 267 pp, (4 first and 2 last blank pages), 8 plates, illustrated cover; (2 blank pages), 263 pp, (4 first and last blank pages), 6 plates, illustrated cover. Red morocco, boards entirely covered with a geometrical and symmetrical decoration, distinct for each binding, composed of gilt and black fillets as well as mosaic motifs in black and white morocco, smooth spine decorated with diamond-shaped motifs in gilt and black morocco, red morocco framed with circular motifs in black morocco and gilt inside, red moiré silk lining and endpapers, double endpapers, edges gilt on witnesses, cover and spine preserved, slipcase lined (R. Laurent). Brilliant edition printed at 160 copies on japon paper, illustrated with 57 superb colour compositions by François-Louis SCHMIED (1873-1941), including 1 frontispiece, 15 chapter headings, 15 lettering, 11 culs-de-lampe, 1 colophon vignette and 14 plates. The hors-texts and chapter headings bear the artist's printed signature. Copy no. 39, signed by the publisher on the justification, one of 30 with a double suite of engravings, in black on vellum and in colour on japon. This double suite has been bound in a separate third volume. The frontispiece and the second headband are in a single state on japon. PRECIOUS EXEMPLAIRE BINDED IN THE EPOCQUE BY RENÉ LAURENT, a Belgian bookbinder who was a pupil of Charles de Samblanx. These bindings are decorated in the purest Art Deco style, with great elegance and perfect execution. Each binding has a very similar but distinct composition in the centre. This copy was designed for the famous Belgian bibliophile General Jacques Willems (1879-1937), president of the Société des Bibliophiles et Iconophiles de Belgique. It is enriched with the following items. Volumes of text : - ORIGINAL GOUACHE BY SCHMIED, signed and dedicated in pencil: "pour Kim // à Monsieur le général Willems // en attachement respectueux // F. L. Schmied". - L.A.S. from Schmied to Jacques Willems, two pages in-8, relating in particular to the original composition mentioned above: "I have just finished your two watercolours. The one intended for "Kim", depicting a Tibetan city as I imagine it, is, I think, one of my best creations. - One of 160 suites on Japon nacré of the 15 additional plates drawn and engraved by François-Louis Schmied. - Colour state of 8 of the 15 chapter headings, including 2 on Japon nacré and one with the handwritten mention "1er essai". - A colour proof on japon nacré of plate XIII. Volume of suites: - Suite No. 7 of the 15 additional plates in double state, black on vellum and in colour on Japon nacré. - A decomposition of the colours on japon of plate IX of this suite. A perfectly preserved copy. Provenance : Jacques Willems.