The Black Cruise by Iacovleff

• Folio folder with leather laces, covered in full filali leather from Marrakech with author and title stamped on the first cover (all copies are bound by Félix). Interior cardboard flaps containing 50 color compositions by Iacovleff (including 1 double page) and a volume of text (15 ff.) with reversed skin back and black silk boards, with a vertically decorated band on the first board, a motif taken from plate 39. The text is illustrated on all pages with reproductions of pencil sketches taken from life and sometimes captioned. Small tears and dirt on the binding, light dirt on the flaps. Plates and text in perfect condition. 

The painter of Russian origin Alexandre Iacovleff (1887-1938), was chosen by André Citroën to establish “by pencil and brush” the morals and customs of the natives studied during the Black Cruise expedition, which crossed the Sahara, Niger, Chad and Congo to arrive in Madagascar. Iacovleff brought back sketches and paintings which illustrate the beauty of this continent and the dazzlingness of his talent. Edition of 1020 copies, this one of 750 justified in black on Madagascar-Lafuma for the text and pure rag vellum Lafuma de Navarre for the plates.