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ANDRÉ BRETON — LES VASES COMMUNICANTS1932 First EditionService de Presse CopyInscribed by André Breton to Jules MarsanOriginal Max Ernst WrappersSubstantially Unopened
BRETON, André. Les Vases communicants. Paris: Éditions des Cahiers Libres, 1932. First edition. Original illustrated wrappers designed by Max Ernst. 172 pp. Small octavo.
An exceptional association copy of one of André Breton’s central works of Surrealist theory, issued as a service de presse copy and personally inscribed by Breton to the distinguished French literary scholar and bibliophile Jules Marsan.
The volume remains in its striking original Max Ernst-designed wrappers, and a substantial portion of the text is still unopened, preserving the book unusually close to its original state.
The half-title bears Breton’s presentation inscription:
À Jules Marsan
avec la très respectueuse
sympathie de
André Breton
or:
“To Jules Marsan, with the very respectful sympathy of André Breton.”
The combination of first-edition status, service de presse issue, signed presentation inscription, identified literary recipient, original Max Ernst wrappers, and substantially unopened text makes this a notably desirable copy.
FIRST EDITION — SERVICE DE PRESSE
Les Vases communicants was published by Éditions des Cahiers Libres in Paris in 1932.
The edition comprised 25 copies on Japon impérial, 2,000 copies on vélin Omnia, together with non-numbered service de presse copies such as the present example.
This copy is identified by the printed:
S.P.
on the rear wrapper, marking it as a review or presentation issue rather than one of the ordinary numbered copies.
The colophon records completion of printing on November 26, 1932.
PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED TO JULES MARSAN
The presentation inscription is boldly written across the half-title and signed simply André Breton.
The phrase “avec la très respectueuse sympathie” is notably formal and deferential, and is especially appropriate in view of the recipient.
Jules Ferdinand Joseph Marsan (1867–1939) was a prominent French literary scholar and bibliophile. He was a Doctor of Letters, professor at the Faculté des Lettres of the University of Toulouse, a writer and scholar, a member of the Académie des Jeux floraux, and a collector of the correspondence of Gérard de Nerval.
Marsan also participated in the scholarly publication of Nerval’s work, and his important collection of Nerval manuscripts and correspondence was later dispersed at sale.
The association is particularly evocative. Nerval occupies an important place in the nineteenth-century literary tradition of dream, altered consciousness, visionary experience, madness, and the fantastic that formed part of the intellectual background from which Surrealism emerged.
It would be speculative to claim that Breton chose Marsan as a recipient specifically because of his Nerval scholarship, but the connection makes this presentation especially resonant.
A MAJOR WORK OF SURREALISM
Les Vases communicants — Communicating Vessels — is one of Breton’s principal theoretical works.
The book explores the relationships between:
- dream and waking life
- desire and reality
- the unconscious
- chance
- politics
- the transformation of everyday experience
The title derives from the physical principle of communicating vessels: when connected vessels contain liquid, the liquid moves between them toward equilibrium.
Breton transforms that scientific image into a metaphor for the relationship between dream and reality. Rather than treating them as sealed and separate realms, he presents them as permeable states continually influencing one another.
BRETON AND FREUD
Sigmund Freud occupies an important place in the book.
Breton was deeply engaged with Freud’s theories of dream interpretation and the unconscious, while refusing simply to adopt psychoanalytic theory wholesale. For Breton, dream, desire, poetry, and unconscious experience also had implications for the transformation of external and social reality.
The historical connection is particularly striking because Breton also sent a presentation copy of this same first edition to Sigmund Freud. That celebrated copy later sold at Christie’s for €150,000 in 2017.
The present copy is of course not comparable in monetary value to the Freud association copy, but it belongs to the same contemporary presentation history of the book and links Breton directly to the intellectual network in which Les Vases communicants circulated.
ORIGINAL MAX ERNST WRAPPERS
The book remains in its original publisher’s wrappers designed by Max Ernst, one of the central figures of Dada and Surrealism.
The wrappers are printed in black and rose, with calligraphic typography and an enigmatic linear figure on the front cover. Ernst’s initials appear within the design.
The image is particularly well suited to Breton’s text: overlapping and interconnected forms visually echo the book’s concern with permeability, transformation, and communication between states.
The survival of the original Ernst wrappers is an important part of the copy’s appeal.
SUBSTANTIALLY UNOPENED
The text block is untrimmed and substantially unopened.
Numerous leaves remain joined along their upper edges, showing that significant portions of the book were never cut open for ordinary reading.
This is especially appealing in a presentation copy, preserving the volume unusually close to the physical form in which it left the publisher and was presented by Breton.
The unopened leaves should, of course, remain unopened.
CONDITION
Good to Very Good overall.
The original Max Ernst-designed wrappers remain present and attached.
The wrappers show expected age-toning, surface soiling, rubbing, handling wear, and edge wear. The front wrapper remains visually attractive, with the characteristic black-and-rose design clearly preserved.
There is creasing and wear to the edges and corners, including a noticeable crease at the lower front corner.
The spine is browned and rubbed, with wear at the head and foot and a small chip / short split toward the lower spine, but remains substantially complete.
The text block is untrimmed and substantially unopened, with deckled edges.
Interior pages show expected age-toning but are generally clean and well preserved.
Breton’s presentation inscription is bold, dark, fully legible, and attractively positioned on the half-title.
No restoration noted.
Please examine all photographs carefully, particularly the wrappers, spine ends, inscription, S.P. designation, unopened leaves, and colophon.
