O trekh rytsariakh i o rubakhe [The Three Knights and the Shirt].

One of only 25 copies on Japon. Signed by the illustrator.

This impressive production was a collaboration between two Russian émigrés based in Paris (specifically Montparnasse) at that time – the artist and illustrator Ivan Lebedev (1884 – 1972) and the writer Ilya Ehrenburg (1891 – 1967). This was one of Ehrenburg's earliest published works.

The Three Knights and the Shirt was originally a fabliau written by Jacques de Baisieux, a French-language poet and troubadour of the late thirteenth century. Short narratives in verse between 300 and 400 lines long, fabliaux were written by jongleurs in Northeast France between 1150 and 1400 and went on to feature in and inspire works such as Le Roman de Renart, the Decamerone, and the Canterbury Tales.

This edition, produced in the style of a medieval manuscript is coloured by hand and signed by the artist. All of the woodblocks used were destroyed immediately after printing and remaining examples are decidedly rare. Not in the Russian State Library; WorldCat locates three copies at Harvard, Yale and the British Library.

Limited edition, one of 25 copies on Japon de 'Shidzouka', from a total edition of 685, signed by Lebedev; folio (39 x 28 cm); illustrated and engraved entirely by Lebedev, lettrines coloured by hand; stitched in the original self-wrappers, some age toning to margin of upper cover, otherwise a very good copy.