Paris: La Vie Parisienne, 1917. The December 29, 1917 Issue (55e annee, No 52). Illustrations by Cheri Herouard; Joseph Kuhn-Regnier; Charles Martin; Zyg Brunner et al. Text in French. Illustrated wraps, folio (13.75" x 10.5"), 21 pp. plus 1 unnumbered ad leaf and covers. Slender, but large: folio size. See scans. Some cover soiling, wrinkling, wear and small scale chips; contents sharp, bright, Very Good overall; nice condition for this thin-but-large, fragile weekly. Glossy covers; first and last few internal pages are on newsprint, else all glossy. Rather spectacular full-page color illustrations (in every issue, in fact) by the coterie of guys who knew how to do what you see here. In the case of this issue, Cheri Herouard, Joseph Kuhn-Regnier, Charles Martin and Zyg Brunner are credited for the big stuff, but some of the other very credit-worthy art is uncredited. See scans. Cute humor, from the same mood as mutoscope cards, or perhaps a bit (only a bit) more refined, yields the cover art caption: "Un Permissionaire de la Classe 1417", for which I do not know the colloquial translation), for an artful depiction of a medieval young Lady and Lord becoming better acquainted (see scan) and other captions throughout. Gentle titillation. Even the occasional partial nudity is rather tasteful and soft, though humorously flirtatious. All of the full page efforts are eminently mountable, and at this time of a sensibility midway-evolved between nouveau and deco, as is much of the uncredited b&w art. An original first and only edition of the 12/1/1917 issue of this memorable and long-lived French weekly offering of very soft, very artful light erotica. The captioned illustrations by the eminent "dessins" luminaries named above, and others in their clan, are what really "make" this issue (as was generally the case through the era), but cartoons, serial fiction and around-town pieces nicely compliment those. Gorgeous illustrations are what you collect these for. l-LNG-1
