19th Jun, 2025 10:00

Children’s & Illustrated Books, Modern First Editions & Original Illustrations

 
Lot 780
 

Saint-Exupéry (Antoine de). Pilote de guerre (Flight to Arras), 1st edition, New York, [1942]

Sold for £19,000


 

Saint-Exupéry (Antoine de, 1900-1944). Pilote de guerre (Flight to Arras), 1st edition, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock for Éditions de la Maison française, [February 1942], uncut and unopened, ink signed presentation inscription to Dido Freire from the author at head of half-title, ‘En souvenir d'une vielle amitié ... et pour qu'elle me pardonne d'être falument insupportable dans les discussions ... Antoine de Saint Exupéry ’, (‘In memory of an old friendship... and so that she would forgive me for being so unbearably annoying in discussions...’), with a fine pencil self-portrait caricature in pencil beneath, showing a ‘winged poet’ standing on a fluffy cloud with the sun and two stars, the torso of the figure inscribed ‘Ca c’est moi’, and in the lower right corner below is drawn the curve of Earth featuring two trees and a church with a plume of rising smoke, to which the author has captioned, ‘Ca c'est la fumée de l'incendie d'Arras’ (‘That's the smoke from the Arras fire’), the blank endpaper facing with a pen and ink and pencil sketch of the head of Saint-Exupéry in profile, a cigarette in his mouth, ink signed 5-line presentation inscription from the artist beneath, ‘Ca c'est St Ex vu par moi, Bernard Lamotte, à Dido Freire, très amicalement’, (‘This is St Ex as seen by me, Bernard Lamotte, to Dido Freire with kind regards’), original light grey wrappers printed in red and black, some marginal toning to covers and light toning at head and foot of spine, chipped and fragile glassine dust jacket with blind-stamped spider-web design, lacking the spine but otherwise largely present and including turn-ins, 4to

(Quantity: 3)

Provenance: From the family of Jean Renoir, by descent.

Limited edition, 11/50 copies on Text paper, after a unique copy on vellum for the author (lettered ‘A’) and 25 lettered copies (B-Z) on Strathmore. A further 450 copies (51-500) were printed on Corsican paper.

First edition of this celebrated war novel in which Antoine de Saint-Exupéry tells the story of the aerial reconnaissance mission he flew over Arras in 1940 aboard his Bloch MB.174 aircraft, published at the same time as the English translation. The first edition in France was published by Gallimard in November 1942. Bernard Lamotte, who met Saint-Exupéry at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1920, moved to New York in 1935. They remained close friends and it was Lamotte who illustrated the first appearance of Pilote de guerre when it was published in the Atlantic Monthly magazine in January 1942. These illustrations do not appear in this French language edition but were reproduced in the simultaneously published original English edition of Pilote de guerre (Flight to Arras).

A highly significant association copy, the book is accompanied by two Autograph Letters Signed by Saint-Exupéry. Both are undated [early 1942] one-page quarto letters to Dido Freire. The first is in pencil (the same as used for the drawing in the book), the second in ink, and featuring a small full-length self-portrait caricature at the head. Like the self-portrait in the book the drawing foreshadows the figure of the Petit Prince, about whose exploits Saint-Exupéry was to write a year later.

Letter one:

Chere Didot
Voulez vous accepter ce petit souvenir en souvenir des jours heureux que j'ai reçu Hollywood Boulevard. Embrasser Jean Renoir pour moi et envoyer à ma profonde reconnaissance.
Pardonnez moi ce mot si court mais je suis encore tout raplapla...
StEx.

(‘Will you accept this little souvenir in memory of the happy days I received on Hollywood Boulevard? Give Jean Renoir a kiss for me and send it with my deep gratitude. Forgive me for this short note, but I am still all worn out...’)

Letter two:

Chere Dido
Pardonnez moi de n'avoir fait faire d'exemplaire nominatif que pour Jean mais je ne rispesais que des 26 lettres de l'alphabet pour dire mon attachement aux miens et à tous mes vieux amis de France. (Mais je vous envoi le meilleur des papiers que je retienne en delors des 26.)
Embrasser Jean pour moi et charger le de vous embrasser de ma part (vous n'y parviendrez jamais toute seule.)
StEx.

(‘Forgive me for not having a personal edition made just for Jean, but I only had the 26 letters of the alphabet to express my affection for my family and all my old friends in France. (But I'm sending you the best of all the materials I've retained beyond the 26).
Kiss Jean for me and ask him to kiss you on my behalf (you'll never succeed at it alone.’)

The relationship between Jean Renoir, his then second wife-to-be, Dido Freire, and Saint-Exupéry was a very close one. Both Renoir and Saint-Exupéry had a great sense of humour and big appetites for life.

After Germany invaded France in May 1940, Jean Renoir fled to the United States with Dido Freire. ‘Dido and I travelled by sea from Marseilles to Algeria, Morocco and Lisbon... At Lisbon we got places on an American ship, and I was delighted to find myself sharing a cabin with none other than the writer Saint-Exupéry.’ (Jean Renoir, Life and Letters). On the voyage, Renoir read Saint-Exupéry’s Terre des Hommes (Wind, Sand and Stars) and was overwhelmed by it. Renoir, (son of the artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir), was an aviation fan himself and had flown reconnaissance missions in World War I. Renoir became determined to make a film of the book, with Saint-Exupéry as the script writer. They worked on it together for a year but Renoir could not get the backing and the project was eventually abandoned.

During the course of 1941 Saint-Exupéry spent time living with Jean and Dido as their house guest. During this time he was writing Pilote de Guerre, and this special presentation copy is a token for the Renoirs’ hospitality and friendship.

It was a year later that Saint-Exupéry was to write Le Petit Prince, (first published in April 1943), so the finalised figure of the Little Prince did not exist at this point. However, Saint-Exupéry was well-known for doodling in margins of everything he wrote and there are numerous prototype figures, many based on himself, a ‘winged poet’, that bear resemblance to the famous creation. These two drawings offered here are striking in their similarities to the prince, (though without the golden hair), and indicate that his famous creation was already in embryo form when he presented these letters and books to Dido and Jean Renoir in early 1942. Indeed, the iconic cover illustration for Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) might be taken as plagiarism of the drawing in this book, were it not also Saint-Exupéry’s own work.

The Little Prince became Saint-Exupéry's most successful work, translated into over 500 languages, and selling an estimated 140 million copies worldwide. For more information about the Little Prince manuscript and drawings, see https://www.themorgan.org/collection/little-prince.

You can make a purchase at Dominic Winter Auctioneers by using any of the following methods:

In person: Being present at the auction provides the convenience of being able to remove the lots that you have purchased when the sale ends, provided you choose to pay by credit or debit card, guaranteed cheque or cash.

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Please note successful bids made via live bidding cannot be invoiced or paid for until the day after an auction. A live bidding fee of 3% + VAT (Dominic Winter website or Invaluable.com) or 4.95% + VAT (the-saleroom) will be added to your invoice.

Commission bid: Also called an 'Absentee bid'. A member of our staff will bid on your behalf and attempt to purchase the lot as cheaply as is permitted by other bids or reserves. Commission bids can be posted, faxed or emailed to us (please remember to provide your full name and address), or you can enter a bid on our website after completing the registration process. 

Telephone bid: You can contact our office to arrange a telephone bid. A member of our staff will telephone you a few minutes before bidding commences on your specified lot and will bid on your behalf, according to your instructions. This service is only available on lots with a minimum pre-sale estimated value of £300.

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Conditions Of Sale And Business

Terms and Conditions of Sale 

1. (a) Dominic Winter (Auctioneers) Ltd ("the Auctioneer") sells as agents for the seller (except where otherwise stated) and as such is not responsible for any default by buyer or seller.

(b) The Seller warrants to the Auctioneer and to the buyer that he is the true owner or is properly authorised to sell the property by the true owner and is able to transfer good and marketable title to the property free from any third party claims.

2. (a) The highest bidder to be the buyer. If during the auction the Auctioneer considers that a dispute has arisen he has absolute authority to settle it or to re-offer the lot. The auctioneer may at his sole discretion determine the advance of bidding or refuse a bid, divide any lot, combine any two or more lots or withdraw any lot without prior notice.

(b) Where goods are bought at auction by a buyer who has entered into an agreement with another or others that the other or others (or some of them) shall abstain from bidding for the goods and the buyer or other party or one of the other parties is a dealer as defined in the Auctions (Bidding Agreements) Act 1927 and 1969 the buyer warrants that the goods are bought bona fide on a joint account.

3. The buyer shall pay the price at which a lot is knocked down by the Auctioneer to the buyer ("the hammer price") together with a premium of 22% except those lots asterisked (*) in the title, in which case the buyer's premium is 26.4% inclusive of VAT. By making any bid the buyer acknowledges that his/her attention has been drawn to the fact that on the sale of any lot the Auctioneer will receive from the seller commission at its usual rates in addition to the said premium and assents to the Auctioneer receiving the said Commission.

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(b) The buyer may be required to pay down during the course of the sale the whole or any part of the total sum due, and if he fails to do so after such request the lot or lots may at the Auctioneer's absolute discretion be put up again and resold immediately.

(c) The buyer shall at his own expense take away any lot or lots purchased no later than five working days after the auction day.

(d) The Auctioneer may at his discretion agree credit terms with a buyer and extend the time limits for collection in special cases but otherwise payment shall be deemed to have been made only after the Auctioneer has received cash or funds by bank transfer or a sterling banker's draft or the buyer's cheque or debit/credit card payment has been cleared.

(e) All sums due to the Auctioneer shall be paid as shown and he reserves the right to charge interest which shall accrue at the rate of 4% over such base lending rate of National Westminster Bank Plc as shall be in force at the date that interest becomes due, such sum to be calculated per annum from day to day on all amounts due but unpaid. This right shall be exercisable without prejudice to any other right of the Auctioneer.

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(i) Rescind the sale of that or any other lots sold to the buyer who defaults and re-sell the lot or lots whereupon the defaulting buyer shall pay to the Auctioneer any shortfall between the proceeds of that sale after deduction of costs or re-sale and the total sum due. Any surplus shall belong to the seller.

(ii) Proceed for damages for breach of contract.

(b) Without prejudice to the Auctioneer's rights hereunder if any lot or lots are not collected within five days or such longer period as the Auctioneer may have agreed otherwise, the Auctioneer may charge the buyer a storage charge up to £1.00 per lot per day.

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(b) Where any lot fails to sell, the Auctioneer shall notify the seller accordingly. The seller shall make arrangements either to re-offer the lot for sale or to collect the lot and may be asked to pay a commission not exceeding 50% of the selling commission and any special expenses incurred in cataloguing the lot.

(c) If such arrangements are not made within seven days of the notification the Auctioneer is empowered to sell the lot without reserve by auction or by private treaty and to receive from the seller the normal selling commission and special expenses.

7. Any representation or statement by the Auctioneer in any catalogue, brochure or advertisement of forthcoming sales as to authorship, attribution, genuineness, origin, date, age, provenance, condition or estimated selling price is a statement of opinion only. Every person interested should exercise and rely on his own judgement as to such matters and neither the Auctioneer nor his servants or agents are responsible for the correctness of such opinions. No warranty whatsoever is given by the Auctioneer or the seller in respect of any lot and any express or implied warranties are hereby excluded.

8. (a) Notwithstanding any other terms of these conditions, if within fourteen days of the sale the Auctioneer has received from the buyer of any lot notice in writing that in his/her view the lot is a deliberate forgery and within fourteen days after such notification the buyer returns the same to the Auctioneer in the same condition as at the time of the sale and satisfies the Auctioneer that considered in the light of the entry in the catalogue the lot is a deliberate forgery then the sale of the lot will be rescinded and the purchase price of the same refunded. "A deliberate forgery" means a lot made with intention to deceive.

(b) A buyer's claim under this condition shall be limited to any amount paid to the Auctioneer for the lot and for the purpose of this condition the buyer shall be the person to whom the original invoice was made out by the Auctioneer.

9. Lots may be removed during the sale after full settlement in accordance with 4.d. hereof.

10. All goods delivered to the Auctioneer's premises will be deemed to be delivered for sale by auction unless otherwise stated in writing and will be catalogued and sold at the Auctioneer's discretion and accepted by the Auctioneer subject to all these conditions. In the case of miscellaneous books, maps and other items, the Auctioneer reserves the right to extract and dispose of items that, in the opinion of the Auctioneer at his absolute discretion, have no saleable value and, therefore, might detract from the saleability of the rest of the lot and the Auctioneer shall incur no liability to the seller in respect of the items disposed of. By delivering the goods to the auctioneer for inclusion in his auction sales each seller acknowledges that he/she accepts and agrees to all the conditions.

11. (a) Unless otherwise instructed in writing, all goods on the Auctioneer's premises and in his custody will be held insured against the risk of fire, burglary, water damage and accidental breakage or damage. The value of the goods so covered will be the hammer price, or in the case of unsold lots the lower estimate, or in the case of loss or damage prior to the sale that which the specialist staff of the Auctioneer shall in their absolute discretion estimate to be the auction value of such goods.

(b) The Auctioneer shall not be responsible for damage to or the loss, theft, or destruction of any goods not so insured because of the seller's written instructions whether caused by negligence or otherwise.

(c) Any liability of the Auctioneer for any claim arising from loss or damage of any kind in respect of goods whether caused by negligence or otherwise including any claims for compensation will be limited to the amount of insurance cover effected in accordance with the provisions of clause 11.a. above.

12. The Auctioneer shall remit the proceeds of the sale to the seller thirty days after the date of the auction provided that the Auctioneer has received the total sum due from the buyer. In all other cases the Auctioneer will remit the proceeds of the sale to the seller within seven days of the receipt by the Auctioneer of the total sum due. The Auctioneer will not be deemed to have received the total sum due until after any funds received from the buyer have cleared. In the event of the Auctioneer exercising his right to rescind the sale his obligation to the seller hereunder lapses.

13. In the case of the seller withdrawing instructions to the Auctioneer to sell any lot or lots, the Auctioneer may charge the seller a fee of 12.5% of the Auctioneer's middle estimate of the auction price of the lot withdrawn together with Value Added Tax thereon and any expenses incurred in respect of the lot or lots.

14. If, on collation, any named items in the catalogue prove defective, in text or illustration, the buyer may reject the lot provided he/she returns it within fourteen days stating the defect in writing. This however will not apply in the case of unnamed items, periodicals, autograph letters, manuscripts, music, maps, atlases, prints or drawings, nor in respect of damage to bindings, stains, foxing, marginal wormholes or other defects not affecting the completeness of the text, nor in respect of lack of list of plates, inserted advertisements, cancels or subsequently published volumes, supplements, appendices or plates or error in the enumerating of the plates, nor in respect of defects mentioned in the catalogue or announced at the time of sale.

15. The Auctioneer accepts no responsibility in connection with the commissioning of his staff to bid for any lots. Reserves, and commission bids given by telephone are accepted only at the sender's risk and must be confirmed in writing before the date of the sale. Lots will always be bought as cheaply as is allowed by other bids and such reserves as are on our books.

16. Buyers are advised that a storage charge of £1.00 per lot per day plus Value Added Tax at the current rate will be levied on all purchases not cleared within fourteen working days of the sale. After this period the buyer will be responsible for loss or damage.

17. Artist's Resale Rights ("Droit de Suite"). Lots marked with "AR" or another appropriate symbol and referenced as such in the catalogue are subject to the Artist's Resale Right law. The buyer agrees to pay the Auctioneer an amount equal to the resale royalty and the Auctioneer will pay such amount to the artist's collecting agent. Resale royalty applies where the Hammer Price is 1,000 Euro or more and the amount cannot be more than 12,500 Euro per lot.

The amount is calculated as follows:

Royalty For the portion of the Hammer Price (in Euro)

4.00% up to 50,000

3.00% between 50,000.01 and 200,000

1.00% between 200,000.01 and 350,000

0.50% between 350,000.01 and 500,000

0.25% in excess of 500,000

Invoices will be issued in Pounds Sterling. For the purposes of calculating the resale royalty the Pounds Sterling/Euro rate of exchange will be the European Central Bank reference rate on the day of the sale. Please refer to the DACS website www.dacs.org.uk for further details.

18. These conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English Law.

 

Buyer's Premium :

The buyer's premium is 22%, except those lots asterisked (*) in the title for which Value Added Tax (VAT) will be added to the premium, resulting in a buyer's premium of 26.4% inclusive of VAT. Eligible items include manuscripts, prints, photographs, drawings, framed maps, paintings, pens and other objects which are subject to VAT at a rate of 20% on the buyer's premium as part of the Auctioneers Margin Scheme. VAT zero-rated items such as books, unframed maps and albums are not subject to VAT on the buyer's premium.

Live Auction Charges

An additional commission of 3% plus VAT (3.6% inclusive of VAT) on the hammer price is payable if you use the live auction bidding facility on the Dominic Winter Auctioneers website (dominicwinter.co.uk). This charge will be added to your invoice automatically.

An additional commission of 4.95% plus VAT (5.94% inclusive of VAT) on the hammer price is payable if you use the live auction bidding facility on the ATG Media website (the-saleroom.com). This charge will be added to your invoice automatically.

An additional commission of 3% plus VAT (3.6% inclusive of VAT) on the hammer is payable if you use the live auction bidding facility on the Invaluable website (invaluable.com). This charge will be added to your invoice automatically.

Payment (UK Buyers)

Payment is preferred by direct Bank Transfer to our bank account. Our bank details will be supplied to you with your invoice.

Payment can be made in cash at the Cashier's Office, either during or after the sale. Alternatively, you can pay by cheque (Pounds Sterling only), please allow 5 working days for the cheque to clear before collection of goods.

Credit or Debit Card payments will not be accepted by telephone unless by prior arrangement with the auctioneers. Card payments can be made in person at our premises but must be accompanied by relevant ID confirming address details. We do not accept payments by American Express.

Payment (Overseas Buyers)

Payment must be made by direct Bank Transfer to our bank account. Our bank details will be supplied to you on your invoice. No card payments will be accepted unless by special prior arrangements with the auctioneers. All transfers must state the relevant invoice number. The amount we receive must be the total due after currency conversion and the deduction of any bank charges (normally £7).

UK Shipping

We are not specialist shippers. Some items, such as framed & glazed or fragile goods, will require specialist handling and buyers will be asked to use Mailboxes or RF Shipping Ltd. (details below).

For non-fragile items and items of reasonably small size, we offer an in-house packing and shipping facility for UK buyers. When possible, purchases will be sent by either Royal Mail Special Delivery or DPD overnight service. The charge for this service is variable (£15 minimum per parcel) and will be added to your invoice. Please note shipments to the Highlands and Islands may require shipment by courier and may be more expensive. Please contact us for a quote before bidding.

For larger packages and fragile goods, we recommend Mailboxes, Pack & Send or RF Shipping Ltd who will collect fully paid-for purchases from us twice a week and liaise with the buyer direct. For more information please contact Sarah Ball by telephone on +44 (0)1285 860006 or email sarah@dominicwinter.co.uk. These companies will require payment direct for their services.

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