CHARLES BAUDELAIR. Les Fleurs du mal, 1917.

Charles Baudelaire. Les Fleurs du mal, number 17 of 72 copies, half-title and title, engraved portrait frontispiece, presentation inscription to J. M. Rothenstein from T. E. Lawrence 'I want to get rid of this: It's v.g. and was the bright spot of the Peace Conference to me: but let's forget that: we grew a much worse crop than we ever dreamed of' to front free endpaper, contemporary full vellum, yapp edges, bookplate of J. M. Rothenstein, 8vo, Paris: Librairie Des Bibliophiles Parisiens, 1917

Provenance; Sir John Knewstub Maurice Rothenstein (1901-1992), director of the Tate Gallery, thence by descent.

Literature - the meeting between J. M. Rothenstein and T. E. Lawrence is mentioned on page 67 of his autobiography 'Summer's Lease: Autobiography, 1901-1938' where he writes 'On another visit he spoke bitterly about the Peace Treaty as it affected the Arabs, and of his sense of having been the instrument of the betrayal of hopes of independence that he had been permitted, even encouraged, to foster in them. Turning to a bookshelf he took down one of his vellum-bound books and wrote a few words on the fly-leaf. The book was Fleurs du Mal; the inscription ran: 'To J.M. Rothenstein from T. E. Lawrence, Dec. 1920. I want to get rid this; it's v.g. and was the one bright spot of the Peace Conference to me: but let's forget that: - we grew a much worse crop than we dreamed of.' It was a subject he reverted to several times that winter, and always in anger'.