LAURE ALBIN-GUILLOT (1879-1962) France
Micrographie Decorative 1931
Preface by M. Paul Leon, 20 photogravure plates in a variety of inks and papers, including silver and gold foil, all tipped-in and matted, text in French, limited to 300 numbered copies, folio, spiral-bound bds.
Published by Draeger Freres, Paris.

Micrographie Décorative was created as a tribute to Laure's husband after his death.

Dimensions:
Book: H: 16 ¾” x W: 15” x D: 1 3/8”
Custom leather box 2008: H: 19” x W: 16 5/8” x D: 2 5/8”
Custom silk slipcase: H: 20 1/8” x W: 17 ¼” x D: 4”

Albin-Guillot, Laure (née Meffredi; 1879-1962), French photographer who became interested in photography soon after her marriage in 1897 to the physician/scientist Dr Albin Guillot. At first, her husband's circle of friends, which included architects, writers, and politicians, provided her with portrait subjects. During the 1920s and 1930s she was engaged by the design precepts of the New Vision, and produced more sharply focused close-ups of objects for clients like Bon Marché and Renault. At the same time, she continued to create soft-focus pictorialist nudes that appeared in artistic photography journals and as illustrations in volumes of poetry. Many of her images were exhibited during the 1920s and reproduced in Arts et métiers graphiques.

At a time when many photographers were indifferent to the quality of prints intended for reproduction, Albin-Guillot sought to invest hers with artistry and individuality. Engrossed by her husband's lifelong research in micrography, in 1931, in collaboration with Pierre Fresson, she published in his memory a volume of 24 photomicrographs of crystals, exquisitely printed on various coloured and metallic papers. Later, she and Fresson also collaborated on similar works, which were used as decoration on the liner Normandie.