A gorgeous early example of the Batik-printed book

[Seignobosc], Françoise. Plus Vieille Histoire du Monde. Paris: Jardin Des Modes/ Impressions Paul Dumas, [1931].

Oblong; 9 3/4 x 8 3/8 inches; full-color batik print illustrations in vegetable dyes with hand-drawn lettering; bound in pictorial linen folded around cardboard insert and stitch-bound; sheared edges; original herringbone patterned spine; light roll to tail of front cover; dampstaining to rear cover.

Batik is an Javanese technique of wax-resist dyeing applied to the whole cloth, made either by drawing dots and lines of wax with a spouted tool called a canting, or by printing the wax with a copper stamp called a cap. The applied wax resists dyes and therefore allows the artisan to color selectively by soaking the cloth in one color, removing the wax with boiling water, and repeating if multiple colors are desired. This scarce children's book, which follows the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis, was one of the first full Batik-printed books. The story of the creation is beautifully depicted by Françoise Seignbosc's evocative "Primitive Deco" stylization. Seignobosc was born in November 1897 in Lodeve, Herault, France and eventually emigrated to the United States, where she wrote and self-illustrated books for children. In French.