Eloise à Paris. by KNIGHT, Hilary (illus.); THOMPSON, Kay - 1962: Dessins d'Hilary Knight.

Paris: Pont Royal (Del Duca - Laffont)., , 1962. Elisabeth Welch's presentation copy First edition in French, inscribed by the illustrator "to Elegant, Beautiful, Brilliant Elizabeth Welch from Hilary Knight and ELOISE, April 27^th 1972" and with an original drawing of Eloise listening to records and eating sandwiches, captioned "Eloise says The Supreme pleasure is Elizabeth Welch's sliced cucumber sandwiches and recordings - eaten and played on a Sunday afternoon at about 4:30".
In all likelihood, the recipient was Elisabeth Welch (1904-2003), an American-born singer, actress, and entertainer, whose career spanned seven decades. She sang in Broadway, London, and Paris, and rubbed shoulders with some of the biggest names of the time, such as Cole Porter and Cab Calloway in the early 1930s. "After the [Second World] war Welch reigned supreme in London's West End in three sophisticated revues: Tuppence Coloured (1947), in which she introduced Edith Piaf's 'La vie en rose' to the British public, Oranges and Lemons (1949), and Penny Plain (1951)" (ODNB). Perhaps the two met through Knight's work of illustration for posters for Broadway musicals, as per the one accompanying this copy.
Eloise in Paris, the second title in Thompson's Eloise series, was first published in the US in 1957 and in the UK the following year. Tall quarto. Original colour pictorial boards, titles in red and black on spine and front board, illustrated red endpapers, Broadway postcard designed by Hilary Knight loosely inserted. Illustrated throughout in red, pink, and blue by Hilary Knight, title page in black, red, blue, and pink. Slight wear to extremities and bottom edge, somewhat darkened, lightly rubbed; a very good copy.