Paris, Calavas, ca. 1900. Elephant folio (55.4 x 42.5 cm). Title page; 24 tinted plates, numbered, and with the publisher's name printed in the lower margin. Original portfolio, half linen over pictorial boards.

A rarity, and of exceptional size. Designed by the German artist, principally known as a flower and landscape painter, Josef Pilters (1877-1957). The flowers are depicted in a typical Art Nouveau style, which is also found in several of his landscape oil paintings, some of which have fetched prices well over €10,000. Portfolio spine a bit worn, top front cover partly abraded, strap perished; bottom edge of a few plates soiled, and a bit frayed, with a few short tears. A few plates soiled at the top edge, but mostly clean and in all a very good copy. Neither in Evers, Ornamentale Vorlagenwerke, nor in Schneider-Henn, Ornament und Dekoration, who, however, lists Pilters (under no. 228) as author of Die Blume in den modernen Fantasiestudien, probably a German edition of his Fantaisies florales: à l'usage des dessinateurs industriels. If a German edition of the Nouvelles compositions florales exists, it is not known. This French edition, however, is rare indeed.