Les Multiples Travestissements de Toto Luco (Transformation Book)
Luv Mégret. Paris: G. Gérardin, L’Imagerie de Paris, n.d. [circa 1920].
First edition. Quarto (33 x 23.5 cm). Original pictorial boards. Complete with six hand-colored transformation plates, each divided into three horizontal flaps, allowing for multiple humorous metamorphoses of the central character, Toto Luco. Each page is mounted on linen and bound with original metal staples.
Condition: Binding moderately worn, with some rubbing to edges and joints; corners bumped. Interior very good. All 18 transformation strips are present; two strips show tears, as visible in accompanying photographs. Binding still secure despite wear to staples. A rare survival of a fragile and ingeniously constructed transformation book.
Collector’s Corner:
L’Imagerie de Paris, an imprint operated by publisher-printer G. Gérardin, issued a limited range of inventive children’s books during the 1920s, including alphabet primers, coloring books, and albums on tear-resistant canvas. Luc Mégret collaborated with Gérardin in the early 1920s, producing transformation books that reflected the period’s fascination with visual play and absurdist humor. Gérardin’s transformation titles include La Ménagerie Janus, la plus extraordinaire du monde (1924), a French rag book with pinked edges featuring seven animals, each segmented into interchangeable strips, and Les méthaphorses de Mennlato Le Magicien. Album à transformations (1920s), a similarly structured interactive book of magical transformations.
Reference: Bibliothèque nationale de France data.bnf.fr entry on Luc Mégret (https://data.bnf.fr/en/11915435/luc_megret/).