ZORRILLA (José) - [DORÉ (Gustavo Doré)] - Lot 221

ZORRILLA (José) - [DORÉ (Gustavo Doré)] Ecos de las Montañas. Dibujos del eminente artista Gustavo Doré. Barcelona, Montaner y Simón, 1868. 2 volumes in a large folio; 34 black plates by Gustave DORÉ, captioned and mostly browned. Occasional heavy spotting, light banding in outer margin at beginning of volumes, some soiling. Spanish binding in contemporary brown chagrin, gilt title on spine, gilt title on upper board framed by a large cold listel, small ivory cabochons on corners, filleted edges, interior gilt roulette, gilt edges. First work illustrated by Gustave Doré published by Montaner et Simon in a luxurious edition that soon sold out. Doré's illustrations were originally intended for Tennyson's Idylls of the King, so Zorrilla sometimes had to adapt his text to the illustrations. While these Ecos de las Montañas are well known to Hispanics, the same cannot be said of French bibliophiles. Henri Leblanc, in his Catalogue complet de l'oeuvre de Gustave Doré (Paris Ch. Bosse, 1931), only mentions the second edition published by Montaner y Simon (1894); he was unaware of the original 1868 edition, even though its quality is far superior to that of the second edition.