The first edition of Leon Battista Alberti’s De Re Aedificatoria in Spanish.
This copy features extensive annotation in sepia: to the verso of the title, foot of the conclusion to the dedication, the errata and throughout the text. While much of the annotation is underlining of notable passages in the text, there are numerous marginal notes throughout. In addition, page 12 of ‘Libro primero’ notes Alberti’s mention of Vitruvius, while the section on capitals in ‘Libro septimo’ (page 206) features a marginal drawing of a Doric column and shortly thereafter in the section ‘De los architraves’ (on page 209) there is a drawing, with measurements, of a Doric capital and architrave. The extensive notes in the blank sections of the book appear to relate to Aristotle and his ‘Ethicorum’ (e.g. ‘Benefactores plus amant benificiatos, quam en contra’), his ‘De Animalibus’ (e.g, ‘Corpus est factum propter animam, et non anima propter corpus’) and his ‘Elenchorum’ (e.g. ‘Quibusdam magis est operae pretium, videri sapientes et non esse, quam esse et non videri’); many of these also feature additional commentary in Spanish.
Alberti’s ‘De Re Aedificatoria’ was the first printed book on architecture and an immensely
important Renaissance exemplar for posterity. As part of the court of Cosimo de Medici the Elder, friend to Lorenzo, Brunelleschi and the Humanist circle, as well as secretary to six Popes, Leon Battista Alberti was much more than an architect or theoretician. Born into an important but exiled Florentine family in Genoa in 1404, Alberti, with his knowledge of Latin and Greek, flourished when the family were permitted to return in 1429. Notable for being the author of the first printed book published by a living writer (the ‘Deifira’ of 1471), Alberti’s works also covered painting (‘De Pictura’), sculpture (‘Della Statua’), cryptography, the family and mathematics (‘Ludi Rerum Mathematicarum’), the source for which was Euclid’s ‘Optics’ and it is the combination of his talents that led to the publication of perhaps his most famous and influential work, the ‘De Re Ædificatoria’ of 1485.
Printed first in the year of the Battle of Bosworth Field and the ascendancy of the Tudors, this Spanish edition, translated by Francisco Loçano was printed nearly a century later. Building on the ideas of Vitruvius - a first Spanish edition of ‘De Architectura’, Miguel de Urrea’s Castilian translation, was also published in 1582 in Alcala’ de Henares - Alberti also divides his work into ten books. Alberti stresses, in particular, the harmonious whole of a building, but has time too to reflect on matters relating to gardens, civil
engineering, decoration, and the actual practical details of building. This Spanish edition features a note by the great architect and mathematician Juan de Herrera (1530 - 1597) beneath the translator Loçano’s dedication. de Herrera, the epitome of the Spanish Renaissance and the Herrerian style, completed El Escorial in 1582 and his endorsement gives a measure of the importance of the text itself and the publication of this version.
‘First edition of the Spanish translation.’ (Fowler).
‘His book is the prime example of the renaissance approach to classical example and contemporary practice. Based very firmly (and for the first time) on the writings of Vitruvius, it [the treatise] is neither a translation nor an imitation because the author had taken the trouble of studying and actually meaasuring the extant buildings of classical Rome ... ‘ (Weinreb).
‘It is in the writings of Alberti that a complete Humanist doctrine is first developed and they are the source from which later ideas were derived. Since Alberti represented the fifteenth century at its best, exercising an influence over the spirit of his age second only to that of Leonardo, it is not surprising to find that his De Re Aedificatoria, especially in the theoretical treatment of the subject and in relating it to the ancient text of Vitruvius, played an important part in the literary output of his successors.’ (Fowler).
This Spanish edition of Alberti is scarce in commerce and in institutions: COPAC records only a single copy in the UK at Oxford; OCLC adds the copy at the National Art Library (V & A) and lists four copies in Spain (at Granada, Barcelona, Valencia and Rovira) together with copies at the Biblioteca Nacional Mexico and the Royal Danish Library. In addition we trace copies at the CCA in Montreal, as well as Columbia, Yale and the Bancroft in the US. There may be further copies we have overlooked but microfiche and other electronic versions as well as a later facsimile edition tend to cloud the results.
Although this copy is in its first binding, the endpapers have been replaced at a later date and it appears that the first gathering and some of the second (i.e. all of *4 + up to and including A6) may have been washed at the same time. The leaves of the book feature browning, staining and pen trials - together with the annotations - throughout but the text is entirely legible. The later section of ‘Libro decimo’ features some worming, minor at first and confined to the lower blank margin but becoming more pronounced and for some leaves (T8 - Y6) affecting the text. For the ‘Tabla’ to the conclusion of the ‘Repertorio’, the worming is again marginal. The terminal leaf bb2, a blank, is absent in the present copy and the final leaf of text (bb1) has been strengthened (it appears to be an old restoration) at the inner margin.
‘L’Edizione fu eseguita in Casa di Alonso Gomez, stampatore Reale, ma il privilegio per la stampa su concesso a Francesco Loçano. Non vi sono Tavole in questa versione.’ (Cicognara).
8vo. (214 x 160 mm). [197 leaves (without terminal blank bb2); pp. (i), (vi), 343 (347 with 313 - 316 repeated), (xxxviii)]. Printed title within elaborate woodcut architectural facade with imprint and the initials ‘F[rancisco]. L[oçano].’, leaf with privilege recto, verso and two following leaves with Loçano’s dedication to Juan Fernandez de Espinosa, note by Juan de Herrera, errata by Juan Vazquez de Marmol and note by the censor Christoval de Leon, two leaves with Alberti’s ‘Proemio’ and ‘Libro Primero’ to ‘Librero Decimo’ of Alberti’s text, final leaves with ‘Tabla’ (contents) and ‘Repertorio’ (index), historiated and decorative woodcut 10-line, 9-line, 8-line (&c.) initials throughout. Contemporary Spanish calf, boards ruled in blind with gilt fleur-de-lys corner tools to surround central pelican in her piety tool, banded spine with gilt tools in four compartments, boards pierced for ties (lacking), later endpapers, edges stained.
£1,750
First edition of MoMA's important Bauhaus monograph, with a delightful presentation from László Moholy-Nagy.
BAUHAUS. Bayer, Herbert & Gropius, Walter & Gropius, Ise. (editors). Bauhaus 1919-1928. The Museum of Modern Art. New York. Museum of Modern Art. 1938.
Moholy-Nagy’s presentation, written in black ink to the initial blank, reads: ‘... yes, they are right! / L. Moholy-Nagy / Xmas 1939.’ It is followed by another inscription which reads ‘To my good friend and room mate at the School of Design, Chicago / Bud Bigelow.’ Presumably this copy was given by Moholy Nagy to Bud Bigelow who later passed it on.
László Moholy-Nagy opened his own school, The School of Design in Chicago, in February 1939. Its first campus was at 247 East Ontario Street. Many of the faculty and students of the New Bauhaus joined the school, which offered day and evening classes, and Saturday morning classes for children. In 1944 the school was reorganised as the Institute of Design in Chicago.
The book design’s and typography is by Herbert Bayer. It includes work by all members of the Bauhaus.
Some signs of wear and minor soiling to the yellow cloth covers. Internally in good condition.
4to. (255 x 195 mm). pp. 244. Illustrated throughout in monochrome. Original publisher’s yellow cloth with titles printed in red and black.
£1,500
An excellent copy of Joseph Beuys’ meditations upon and interpretations of Leonardo da Vinci’s Madrid Codices with the additional signed lithograph.
BEUYS, Joseph. Zeichnungen zu den beiden 1965 wiederentdeckten Skizzenbüchern 'Codices Madrid' von Leonardo da Vinci. Stuttgart. Manus Presse. 1975.
From the edition limited to 1,000 copies, with this one of 900 copies numbered in pencil, each with one of nine lithographs signed and numbered from the edition of 100 by Beuys in pencil; the slipcase is also numbered in pencil as per the book and indicates too the sequence of the lithograph.
The book is presented in the form of a sketchbook and all leaves have perforations at the gutter as issued. The text is presented in German and translated into English by Caroline Tisdall.
'In his sketchbook Beuys picks up a characteristic feature of Leonardo: the apparently random sequence of varying themes, from landscape impressions through specific symbols for forms of energy and the powers of nature, to anatomical studies and the written elements and personally abbreviated notations that accompany the drawings in diagrams and partiturs. For Leonardo hardly ever pursues a theme like the planning of a painting over several consecutive pages. The connecting factor for him is always the formal and compositional
unity of a page and its contents ... Relinquishing his usual habit of free choice of dimension and approach, Beuys accepted the restraints of a unified quarto page format established by the Madrid model ... Drawing, then, is for both artists an autonomous visual language, and one which penetrates the consciousness more directly than the world ... In both cases the aim is to establish laws of nature with the help of artistic and scientific analysis and symbols. And admittedly the paths they follow to reach this aim are radically different.' (Götz Adriani translated by Tisdall).
8vo. (235 x 172 mm). [78 leaves]. Leaf with title and quotation from da Vinci in German and English and 81 granolithographs by Joseph Beuys, final (6) leaves with essay by Götz Adriani and quotations from da Vinci, final leaf with justification verso, also included, inserted loose, is a bifolium with an additional lithograph signed by Beuys in pencil; the whole volume is presented in the form of a sketchbook with leaves perforated at gutter as issued. Original publisher's black cloth-backed printed paper boards, white paper label to spine with titles in black, original grey card slipcase.
[Schellman 165 - 185].
The first published facsimile of any of Blake’s illuminated books, John Camden Hotten’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.
BLAKE, William. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. (London). (John Camden Hotten). (1868).
From the edition limited to 150 (possibly 153) copies.
This facsimile, made c.1868 and the first of any of William Blake's illuminated books, features lithograph text and illustration with the colour provided in watercolour by hand. Blake's original work, printed using copper engraving for the text and outlines and then finished by hand, was produced c.1790 - 1793 and is extant in only nine complete copies, each unique, and some fragments. This facsimile was produced by using copy 'F', dated by scholars to c.1795, now held by New York's The Morgan Library & Museum. At the time the facsimile was produced the original was in the collection of Richard Monckton Milnes, Baron Houghton (1809 - 1885) and as per 'Blake Books', Houghton lent it to the publisher John Camden Hotten for reproduction. A note in the supplement volume to 'Blake Books', taken from 'Sir Geoffrey Keynes' copy of his 'Bibliography' (1921) (now in Cambridge University Library)' suggests otherwise: 'Edward Gordon Duff told John Sampson that Lord Houghton lent his copy of the original to Swinburne, and that Camden Hotten made his facsimile [1868] without permission, whereat Lord Houghton was much incensed.'
The publisher John Camden Hotten (1832–1873) was the first to publish a critical study of Blake — Swinburne's 'William Blake: A Critical Essay' (1868) — which also included the first colour reproductions of Blake’s work. For 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell' facsimile, planned as the first of many, he made use of the skill of the artist Henry Bellars, described by H. Spencer Ashbee as 'perhaps the best facsimilist that ever lived' who likely made use of a photographic process to transfer the text and image to the stone (see Morton Paley's extensive exegesis for fuller details). Hotten's project to issue further facsimiles was curtailed by Bellars death in the year this was issued.
All copies of this 1868 facsimile, printed on a thick wove stock chosen for its similarity to Blake's original paper, feature spotting, foxing and staining - a result of the reaction between the printing ink, the hand-applied watercolour and the paper - as well as some oxidisation of the inks used; the present example features foxing and staining as usual, although largely marginal, but the colour remains bright and fresh and comparable to that of the original book.
'For every thing that lives is Holy'. (William Blake)
'Some time during the first months of 1790 a devil spoke to William Blake, an alter ego who revealed
a truth and with whom a marriage was conceived, leaving neither the devil nor Blake the same again. The child of this union was 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell' ... It is a work that deliberately unsettles and questions, prods and cajoles, challenging the way we think. It tells us that evil is good and good evil, and promises us a Bible of Hell. The 'Proverbs of Hell' have become a lexicon of protest and liberation, upsetting convention and subverting authority, made all the more memorable by the spirit of exuberant delight that characterizes their collective wisdom.'
(Michael Phillips).
[Blake Books I, 99, see also 98, pp. 285 - 304 & Supplement 98, pp. 97–101; Keynes 210; Bentley & Nurmi 85; see Morton D. Paley's 'John Camden Hotten, A. C. Swinburne, and the Blake Facsimiles of 1868', Bulletin of the NY Public Library, Vol. 79, 1975–1976; see also Bodleian facsimile, 2011].
4to. (251 x 200 mm). [27 leaves]. Leaf with pictorial lithograph title and 26 leaves of thick wove paper with lithograph text and illustration, all after William Blake by Henry Bellars and all with additional colouring and heightening in watercolour by hand. Original publisher's vellum-backed blue paper-covered boards.
£7,500
The very scarce first edition of Christian Boltanski’s fragile and ephemeral first artist book.
BOLTANSKI, Christian. (Recherche et Présentation de Tout Ce Qui Reste de Mon Enfance). (Paris). (201, boulevard SaintGermain). (1969).
From the edition limited to (approximately) 150 copies, this copy dated and initialled by Boltanski in pencil to the verso of the final leaf 'mai / 1.969 / C. B'; c.100 copies were mailed to selected people at the time of publication.
Christian Boltanski (1944 - 1921) based much of his work, his artist books in particular, on the efforts to reconstruct his own past. In the present work, his first artist book published in the form of reproductions of family photographs, scraps of a sweater, some hair, a sample of his hand-writing in 1950 and other relics of his childhood, Boltanski offers details of a mythical youth (see below for the full contents). In reality, and as Boltanski himself admits, several of these personal relics belonged to his brother or his nephews.
This first edition, as opposed to the stapled reissue in differing format and with different content included in 'Reconstitution' (1991), includes Boltanski's important text - it reads as a manifesto - in the form of a letter. In it Boltanski suggests he must set a precedent, an example and presents the artistic aim of his oeuvre: ' ... j'ai
décidé de m'atteler au projet qui me tient à coeur depuis longtemps : se conserver tout entier, garder une trace de tous les instants de notre vie, de tout les objets qui nous ont cotoyés, de tout ce que nous avons dit et de ce qui a été dit autour de nous, voilà mon but.'
'Contient 13 illustrations : une photo de classe prise au Collège d'Hulst (1950-1951) ; christian boltanski jouant aux cubes (1946), des cubes de christian boltanski retrouvés en 1969 ; le lit de christian boltanski (1947-1950) ; la chemise de christian boltanski (mars 1949) ; un morceau d'un pull over porté par boltanski en 1949 ; les cheveux de boltanski (1949) ; christian boltanski en famille dans le var (1948) ; christian boltanski à Paris en 1945 ; christian boltanski sur la plage de Beg Neil dans le Morbihan en 1945 ; Marie Boltanski, la mère de l'artiste sur la plage de Pénarf dans le Morbihan en 1949 ; Etienne Boltanski, le père de l'artiste sur la plage de Pénarf la même année ; Christian Boltanski avec des amis à la Baule en 1950.' (From the catalogue of the Bibliothèque Kandinsky).
'I'm interested in shared memories; so I felt no remorse about putting 'Christian Boltanski's bed' when it was my nephew's bed. The relic aspect doesn't interest me, because it's too closely linked to one person.' (Christian Boltanski).
'Recherche et Présentation de Tout Ce Qui Reste de Mon Enfance', given its ephemeral form, is scarce on the market and in institutions and we locate only a handful of copies: at the BNF, Bibliothèque Kandinsky and Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet in France, a copy at the Kunstbiblio Staatliche Museen zu Berlin in Germany, a copy in Poland at Kraków's Biblioteka Główna Akademii Sztuk Pięknych, a copy at the Chelsea College of Arts in London and copies at Yale and Princeton in the US. The cataloguing for many of these examples is confusing: Princeton and Yale indicate their copies lack the title (there is no title), the Chelsea College lists the publisher of their copy as Edition Givaudon (?) and many of the other listed copies are described as consisting of eight pages; whether these copies are complete or not, the book is very rare with only a single copy (at Artcurial in 2009) reported in book auction records.
[Calle (1), pp. 12 - 13; see 'Inventaires de Christian Boltanski', Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1973; see also 'Reconstitution', 1991, for the reissue].
Oblong 8vo. (c.176 x 266 mm). [9 unnumbered irregularly cut leaves]. Cover leaf with full-page monochrome image of a class photo including Boltanski, leaf with explanatory typed letter with typed signature and dated 'Paris, mai 1969' and seven leaves with reproduction images and explanatory text (15 illustrations in total); all leaves of thick white wove stock photocopied as issued and printed recto only in monochrome; final leaf verso signed and dated 'mai / 1.969 / C. B' by Boltanski in pencil. Loose as issued, the leaves held by a transparent plastic spine.
£950
A signed copy of Christian Boltanski’s fourth artist book.
BOLTANSKI, Christian. Reconstitution de Gestes Effectués par Christian Boltanski Entre 1948 et 1954. (Paris). (By the artist). (1970).
From the edition limited to 500 copies, this copy signed and dated '1970' in pencil by Boltanski to rear cover.
Boltanski's artist book shows the grown Boltanski performing activities from childhood (sliding down the bannisters, having a tantrum, returning from school and so on), the juxtaposition of the grown man and the actual activity producing the deadpan humour so characteristic of his early books.
'Here, 16 - 22 years later, Christian Boltanski attempts to reconstruct moments of his childhood occurring between 1948 and 1954; we see him sliding down a mattress, tossing a pillow, having his tea ... In reality, he shows how, through these pages, these gestures do not belong to him, but are common to all children of the same age.' (Bob Calle).
'Les documents photographiques ont été réalisés par Sarkis le 8 novembre 1970'. (Credit to rear cover).
[Calle (4), pg. 17].
8vo. (210 x 136 mm). [4 bifolia including wrappers: 8 unnumbered leaves]. Title to front cover, verso and following leaves composed as spreads with details of each 'Reconstitution' (numbered 'I' to 'VII' in Roman numerals) at left and monochrome reproduction photograph by Sarkis of each 'Geste' at right, final leaf (i.e. rear wrapper) with photographer's credit verso. Original publisher's white printed wrappers with title to front cover in black and photographic credit to rear, some slight spotting to wrappers, staples rusted as usual.
£350
The facsimile of Max Ernst’s rare early dada portfolio Fiat Modes.
ERNST, Max. Fiat Modes - Pereat Ars. Berlin. Rainer Verlag. 1970.
First published in strictly limited numbers in Cologne in 1919, 'Fiat Modes' was Max Ernst's first graphic series and a pioneering Modernist production. Ernst's mannequins and strange beings populating urban landscapes of peculiar construction and vista are represented using simple lines but with their additional text labels and draw inspiration from de Chirico and Picabia but are made indisputably Ernst's own. For two of the plates Ernst signs himself 'DaDamax ernst' declaring his allegiance to the emergent movement.
' ... une des oeuvres pionnières de la modernité.' (Catalogue of the collection of Paul Destribats).
[see Spies 7, I - VIII].
Small folio. (442 x 326 mm). [9 unnumbered leaves]. Leaf with title with vignette collage and 8 leaves with reproductions of Max Ernst's original lithographs; sheet size: 437 x 319 mm. Loose as issued in brown card portfolio with flaps, titles to front cover in bistre, edition details in black verso.
£225
Image from Cahier d’Images, the scarce artist book collaboration between HansPeter Feldmann and Céline Duval.
FELDMANN, Hans-Peter. Duval, Céline. Cahier d'images: Image. (No. 2). Düsseldorf. Feldmann Verlag. 2001.
From the edition limited to 600 copies.
Feldmann and Duval's collaborative project Cahier d'images took on many seemingly arbitrary themes and types of image appropriation.
‘Cahier d'Images’ is complete in 7 issues.
4to. (260 x 188 mm). pp. 24. 1 colour image. Original publisher's stapled wrappers.
£225
Rouge, from Cahier d’Images.
FELDMANN, Hans-Peter. Duval, Céline. Cahier d'images: Rouge. (No. 3). Düsseldorf. Feldmann Verlag. 2001.
From the edition limited to 600 copies.
Feldmann and Duval's collaborative project Cahier d'images took on many seemingly arbitrary themes and types of image appropriation.
‘Cahier d'Images’ is complete in 7 issues.
4to. (250 x 180 mm). pp. 24. Richly illustrated with 38 images of which 12 are in color. Original publisher's stapled wrappers with a photograph of a woman's legs to front cover.
£225
Flying, from Cahier d’Images.
FELDMANN, Hans-Peter. Duval, Céline. Cahier d'images: Flying. (No. 5). Düsseldorf. Feldmann Verlag. 2002.
From the edition limited to 600 copies.
Feldmann and Duval's collaborative project Cahier d'images took on many seemingly arbitrary themes and types of image appropriation.
‘Cahier d'Images’ is complete in 7 issues.
4to. (267 x 197 mm). pp. 32. Richly illustrated with 45 images of which 15 are in color. Original publisher's stapled wrappers with a monochrome photograph of two children on a swing to the front cover.
£3,000
A very good copy of the first critical anthology and study of Khalil Gibran printed in Arabic in Sao Paolo in 1932.
GIBRAN, Gibran Khalil. Mas’ud, Habib. Jibran Hayyan wa Mayittan (Gibran Alive and Dead) : majmu’a tastamilu ‘ala mukhtarat mimma kataba wa-rasama Jibran Khalil Jibran wamimma qila fih. San Pawlu, Brazil. (Sao Paulo, Brazil). Maṭbaʻat ‘Abu ‘al-Hawl. 1932.
[PROVENANCE: Ownership signature ‘Barbour / Jerusalem / 1936’ to front wrapper verso].
This first anthology of the work (literary and artistic) of Gibran Khalil Gibran, the LebaneseAmerican poet, novelist and artist known best in the West for his visionary work 'The Prophet', was published in Brazil in 1932 (the year after Gibran's death at the age of 48) by the diaspora Lebanese newspaper 'Abu al-Hawl'. Born to a Maronite family in Ottoman-ruled Lebanon in 1883, Gibran's talents were first noticed in Boston after his family's emigration in the 1890s. After studies in Lebanon, the US and Paris, Gibran settled in New York where he exhibited his paintings and drawings and published his first English-language book 'The Madman' in 1918. 'The Prophet', published by Khnopf in 1923, followed and despite a cool initial reception, sold well and has become subsequently one of the biggest selling English-language titles of all time (it remains in print today), as well as being translated into more than 100 other languages.
Due to 'The Prophet' Gibran's commercial success was assured but it was this anthology that began the efforts to establish his critical reputation. Mas'ud provides excerpts from Gibran's prose, letters and poems, and includes a biographical sketch as well as contemporary criticism. The manuscript of Gibran's 'Al-Mawakib' (The Procession) is presented in facsimile as are the suite of metaphysical drawings he made for it. The hors-texte plates and text illustrations reproduce drawings by Gibran: Abu Nuwas, Ibn Sina, Majnun, the Prophet and others. The sole colour plate shows Bsharri, Gibran's Mount Lebanon birthplace, and a number of cedars. As noted by one critic, Gibran's artistic work bears more relation to Leonardo than to any interceding artist or school. Gibran's longterm patron, Mary Haskell, bequeathed the whole of her collection of drawings and paintings to Savannah, Georgia's Telfair Museum.
The signature 'Barbour' to the front wrapper verso is intriguing and may be that of Arabist Nevill Barbour (1895 - 1972), who lived with his wife in Palestine in the '30s and became the BBC correspondent during the Second World War. Together with two other Christians, three Jews and three Muslims, Barbour was the co-author of 'A Constitution for Palestine' (1945), a moderate attempt to introduce a non-Zionist solution to the political problems of the region.
This study is scarce: OCLC reports a single copy, that at Harvard; COPAC reports a second copy at Cambridge. A second edition was published in Beirut in 1966.
4to. (240 x 168 mm). pp. (ii). (i), (ii), 567. Leaf with title, quotation by Gibran verso, leaf with photographic frontispiece portrait of Gibran, printed text in Arabic throughout with three monochrome illustrations and 33 hors texte plates (one in colour of Lebanon with pink tissue guard) of work by Gibran, index at conclusion and final leaf verso with credit. Original publisher’s tan printed wrappers with Yapp edges, portrait of Jibran to front cover with titles in white.
£4,500
KOKOSCHKA, Oskar. Picasso. Feininger, et al. Haas-Heyw, Otto. Siemsen, Hans. (Ed.) Zeit-Echo. (Ein Kriegs-Tagebuch der Kunstler). Jahrgang 1. Hefte 1-23/24 in 23 parts; Jahrgang II Hefte 1-15 in 15 parts. (All published). Munich / Berlin. Graphik-Verlag. 1914-16.
With contributions by a considerable representation of the expressionist literary tradition including Brod, Buber, Edschmid, Hofmannstahl, Klabund, Scheerbart, Wassermann and others.
Includes original prints by R. Beeh, W. Geiger, Klee (Kornfeld 63 II b), Kokoschka (5: Wingler-W 69-73), Feininger (3), Picasso, Kubin (2: Raabe 79), W. Nowak, A. Schinnerer, R. Seewald (4: Jentsch L 7,9,10,11), Max Unold and others.
First three issues with occasional annotations in pencil to inners, with issue numbers added in pencil to covers. Some wear to the publisher’s box. The set otherwise is in very good condition.
[Raabe 22 / Söhn 364].
38 vols. 4to. (205 x 163 mm). (pp. 368). With 145 original prints (lithographs and woodcuts) by many artists. Original publisher's stitched wrappers with pasted label bearing woodblock titles in black; later issues with yellow saddle stitched wrappers, woodblock titles in black.
Complete set of the rare periodical Zeit-Echo in original parts preserved in the publisher’s cardboard box.
£2,750
Slavko Kopač’s very scarce artist book
published by Jean Dubuffet’s L’Art Brut.KOPAC, Slavko. Tir à Cible. Paris. L’Art Brut. 1949.
'Tir à Cible' (Target Shooting) features Slavko Kopač’s text of fairgrounds (' ... quand je vais à la foire je m'amuse beaucoup à regarder les jeux les baraques de divertissements la pêche table de balles ... '), his dislike of shooting at doves, a rabbit, a chick and so on and hos his hands tremble and he misses. He then reinvents the game: 'J'ai construit le Tir à cible des monstres comme ça on ne tuerait plus les colombes le monsieur au chapeau et les lapins ... Si vous aussi aimez ce jeu tirez seulement aux monstres et vous gagnerez un beau bouquet des fleurs que j'ai preparé pour vous ... '. Kopač's text opens with a figure with a target on their chest holding a rifle and a dove on the head and concludes with a hand offering a bouquet of flowers while his linocut plates each depict a pair of the monsters he imagines.
'Tir à Cible' is one of a series of handmade artist books published by Dubuffet, a genre of nonbibliophile, anti-livres d'artistes, with text and illustration by the artist, using ordinary paper and simple reproductive methods. The other books published by l'art brut in the same vein and the same year were Dubuffet's own 'Ler dla canpane', Jean L' Anselme's 'Histoire de l' Aveugle' and Miguel Hernandez' 'Evolucion'. All were produced
by hand in limited numbers by the artists themselves.
Slavko Kopač (1913 - 1955) was a Croatian-born painter, sculptor and ceramicist who studied at Zagreb's Academy of Fine Arts before spending a year in Paris prior to the outbreak of World War 2. After the war Kopač travelled via Italy - spending five years in Florence - before arriving back in Paris. He met Dubuffet in 1948 and became a founder of 'La Compagnie de l'Art Brut' as well as the curator of the collection.
'Tir à Cible' is scarce on the market and in institutions: we locate copies at the Bibliothèque Nationale and Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet in France and Yale and the Art Institute of Chicago in the US only.
12mo. (131 x 95 mm). [2 folded leaves in leporello format]. Two leporellos, for the text and for the illustration: roneograph text in French in burgundy ink recto only on a single folded sheet (122 x 605 mm) with initial vignette frontispiece and concluding vignette, the leaves each foliated '1' to '6' with the initial blank pasted into the wrapper; three original linoleum cut prints (each c.120 x 170 mm) on thin yellow, red and green paper, each with a pair of images and central dividing fold, backed onto single folded sheet as issued (120 x 516 mm). Pasted in to original publisher's wrappers as issued, matching linoleum cut titles and vignettes on green paper pasted to front and rear covers, later chemise and slipcase.
The famous Frank Lloyd Wright issue of Wendingen with the original lithographic cover by El Lissitzky.
£2500
LISSITZKY, El. Wright, Frank Lloyd.
WENDINGEN. Year 4. Number 11. (Frank Lloyd Wright by H. P. Berlage). Amsterdam. 1921.
An individual number from the splendid example of early 20th century ideas in art and architecture, unique among similar projects for the length of its run, its immaculate production, consistent high quality, and highly individual typography by H. Th. Wijdeveld. Of Wendingen's 116 issues, all but 11 are devoted to single subjects, with an unusually high percentage of architecture including 8 issues on Frank Lloyd Wright of which this is one.
Square 4to. (330 x 330 mm). pp. 38. Illustrated with monochrome photographs of Frank Lloyd Wright's oeuvre throughout; decorative borders and advertisements printed in grey. Original publisher's stitched lithographic wrappers by El Lissitzky; slightly worn, with some with loss to right edge (see image, right).
£250
LOOS, Adolf. DAS ANDERE. Ein Blatt zur Einfuerung abendlaendischer Kultur in Oesterreich. Nos. 1 & 2. (All published). Vienna. (Kunst). 1903.
The journal 'Das Andere' (The Other) was published as a supplement to the review 'Kunst. Monatsschrift für Kunst und alles Andere' (Journal for the Introduction of Western Civilization into Austria). Written single-handedly by Adolf Loos, one of the sharpest and most influential architects and critics of the twentieth century, the two issues are regarded as one of the most important documents of modernity – no topic was off limits, from fashion to masturbation.
Some annotations in pencil and soiling to rear cover of the second issue.
2 vols. 4to. (240 x 210 mm). pp. 16; 16. Monochrome illustrations throughout. Original publisher's stapled wrappers.
A fine example of Adolf Loos’s short-lived radical paper.
£75
A very good copy, signed by Mon and accompanied by the original subscription leaf.
MON, Franz. Sehgänge. Berlin-Zehlendorf. Wolfgang Fietkau Verlag. 1964.
Also included is the subscription leaf for the book (160 x 140 mm), a reproduction of the rear wrapper recto with publication details verso, also signed by Mon. The covers, inners and subscription leaf were letterpress printed and designed by Christian Chruxin.
This series by Wolfgang Fietkau 'are classics of a particular kind of Mittel-European modernist typography that bring joy to the eyes of this type and language addict trained in England and Basel.' (Simon Johnston, Hoffmitz Milken Centre for Typography blog)
Square 8vo. (160 x 140 mm). pp. 24. Initial and terminal leaves of black paper; letterpress printed text throughout. Original publisher's white printed wrappers with title design in black by Christian Chruxin to front and rear covers. Issued as number 8 of Wolfgang Fietkau's 'Schritte für moderne und avantgardistische literatur'.
£2250
August Sander’s seminal first book, Antiltz der Zeit.
SANDER, August. Döblin, Alfred. Antlitz der Zeit. (The face of our time). Sechzig aufnamen Deutscher Menchen des 20. Jahrhunderts. Munchen. Transmere Verlag / Kurt Wolff. 1929.
'Antlitz der Zeit' (The Face of Our Time) was the first publication on Sander's portraiture project 'People of the Twentieth Century.' It is, understandably, now regarded as one of the greatest and most classic photobooks.
‘Many of his classic images are included in this seminal photobook, and the essential qualities of Sander's vision can be seen. He took typical examples of professions, trades and social classes in Weimar Germany, and photographed them in their familiar environments in order to build up, piece by piece, a dispassionate image of the 'face' of society... One of his work's miracles is how, despite his nominal objectivity, his political view shines through... His work is not neutral. It is not just penetrating, but was seen as positively dangerous, a little too acute in its analysis of society and class, by those with certain vested interests. This is made clear by the fact that when the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, publisher's copies of Antlitz der Zeit were seized, the plates destroyed, and the negatives confiscated by Hitler's Ministry of Culture.’ (Parr and Badger, The Photobook, I.124)
The rare dust jacket has signs of wear and repair; internally in good condition.
4to. (292 x 224 mm). pp. xviii: 60. 60 monochrome reproduction photographs by August Sander printed recto only. Original publisher's white dust jacket with titles printed in black; spine repaired and laid down.
£6,000
Das Märchen vom Paradies.
SCHWITTERS, K. Steinitz, K. Das Märchen vom Paradies. 1. Der Hahnepeter. 2. Der Paradiesvogel. 3. Das Paradies auf der Weise. Aposs 2. Band 1. (All published). Hannover. Apossverlag. 1924.
This copy with the green variant covers, signed by Hannah Höch in pencil to the front wrapper verso. Copies with blue covers were also issued.
The book brings together three children's fairy tales written by Schwitters himself between 1923–1928: 1. 'Der Hahnepeter'. 2. 'Der Paradiesvogel' (The Bird of Paradise). 3 'Das Paradies auf der Weise' (The Paradise in the Meadow). The stories describe paradise as the world in which children's wishes come true. The protagonists in the book are said to come from Schwitters' family and circle of friends. Schwitters' typographic mis en page is based on children's books and is perfectly balanced with Steinitz's playful illustrations.
'Das Marchen vom Paradies' (later issued with a sticker and issued as 'Merz 16/17') and 'Die Scheuche' (The Scarecrow, later issued as Merz 14/15) are highlights of the friendship between Steinitz and Schwitters. Apossverlag, their joint creation, was abbreviation of A=Active, p=paradoxical, os=without sentimentality, s=sensible.
4to. (269 x 208 mm). pp. 32. Text and mise en page by Kurt Schwitters, drawings by Kate Steinitz. Original publisher’s illustrated card wrappers with titles printed in black.
Hannah Höch’s copy of her dada colleague Kurt Schwitters’ collection of children’s stories:
[Dada & Surrealism Reviewed p. 131].
£5,500
The first edition of the first book printed in England to make extensive use of Arabic type.
SELDEN, John. (Ed. & Trans.). Eutychii Aegyptii, Patriarchae Orthodoxorum Alexandrini, Scriptoris, ut in Oriente admodùm Vetusti ac Illustris, ita in Occidente tum paucissimis Vsi tum perraro Auditi, Ecclesiae suae Origines. London. Excudebat Richardus Bishopus. 1642 .
' ... it can be considered as the first Arabic book to be printed in England.' (Geoffrey Roper).
Eutychius of Alexandria (877 - 940), i.e. Sa'id Ibn Batriq, was a doctor, appointed Melkite Patriarch of Alexandria in 932 and one of the first Christian Egyptian authors to write extensively in Arabic. His most important work was the 'Nazm al-Jawhar' (the Row of Jewels) and it is an excerpt from that work that is presented here. This critical edition, presented in the original Arabic and with a Latin translation together with extensive analytic commentary, was prepared by John Selden (1584 - 1654), the remarkable polyglot academic (he was competent in, or at least familiar with, Latin, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Chaldean, Samaritan, Aramaic, Farsi, Ge'ez, Old English, German, French, Spanish and Italian), antiquarian, historian, jurist and parliamentarian (he had long served as an MP and in different constituencies but at the time of publication was one of the two MPs representing Oxford University in the Long Parliament). Selden's selection from Eutychius' text treats of the
ecclesiastical hierarchy of the early Christian church while his extensive commentary in Latin with additional extensive quotation from a variety of Arabic, Greek, Hebrew and Latin sources includes a list in Arabic of the first 307 Alexandrian Patriarchs. Selden's preface gives details of Eutychius and his life and medical practise, surveys Arabic manuscripts in Europe - he mentions scholars such as Erpenius - and relates how he purchased the manuscript he relied on for this edition from William Corderoy. Corderoy, like his fellow merchant Richard Hill, both merchants of the Levantine Company at Aleppo, were often the source of books for scholars; Edward Pococke, a friend and protegée of Selden's, procured the Gospels in Farsi for the English Polyglot through the pair. Pococke, the first Laudian Professor of Arabic at Oxford, was also responsible for another edition of Eutychius printed in 1656 by Henry Hall and paid for by Selden who did not live to see it published.
Although Arabic type had been used prior to Selden's 'Eutychius' - and the earliest method had been via woodblocks inserted among metal type - it had been confined mainly to individual letters, short passages or quotations and had, at least until the mid-1630s been of very poor quality. William Stansby used Arabic metal type for the first time in England for Selden's 'Mare Clausum' (1635) and it was used again - this time
by Bishop, the printer of Eutychius, who had bought Stansby's business - for the second edition of Selden's 'De Successionibus In Bona Defuncti' (1636) and his 'De Iure Naturali' (1640) but all three of these books used the type sparsely and irregularly with only the 1636 book including even a page. By the time of the printing of the present book, the compositors were more familiar with the type and it is used here extensively. As per Roper: 'Its [the Eutychius'] Arabic content was thus much more substantial than the previous items [i.e. the aforementioned books], and it can be considered as the first Arabic book to be printed in England.'
'The provenance of the type used by Stansby [the same type used by Bishop for the printing of the present book] is a mystery. It is in the style of the early seventeenth-century Dutch scholartypographers Raphelengius and Erpenius, but it is of a smaller size than the former's Arabic face, and differs in detail from the latter's, which it nevertheless closely resembles. It may perhaps be a copy of the Erpenius face, probably imported from the Netherlands; but this must remain a matter for conjecture until further research is done and more evidence is found.'
(Geoffrey Roper).
'During a lifetime of scholarship, legal practice, and public service, Selden amassed an extensive collection of books and manuscripts. A story circulated that he had revoked an original intention to bequeath these to the Bodleian Library, Oxford, but this was false. By the terms of his will the library was to receive his collection of Greek and Oriental manuscripts, selected Latin manuscripts, and his remaining Talmudic and rabbinical books. Most of these were forwarded by his executors to the Bodleian in 1659, although in the interim some had been lost.
Among the 8000 volumes which arrived safely, some had belonged to Jonson, Donne, and Cotton; they remain there today.' (DNB).
Small 4to. (200 x 152 mm). pp. (i), XXXVIII, 184. Printed title in red and black, 13 leaves with Selden's 'Praefatio' with elaborate woodcut head-piece and four-line intital, 6 leaves with Eutychius' parallel text in Arabic and Latin with headline in red and black, decorative woodcut headand tail-pieces, decorative Arabic initial 'ya' with woodcut border and four-line initial to Latin text and Selden's detailed and extensive 'Commentarius' with elaborate woodcut head-piece and decorative 7-line initial, one woodcut of a Roman coin in the text, final leaves with 'Interserenda' with woodcut head-piece, errata to final leaf verso between type rules. Printed text in Latin and Arabic throughout with occasional Greek and Hebrew, using Roman, italic, Arabic, Greek and Hebrew types; manuscript correction in sepia ink, 'tum' for 'ac' in line 27 on pg. 183. Contemporary full vellum with Yapp edges, manuscript title in sepia ink to spine, later paper label with location details (?).
[Wing 3440; Brunet II, 1117; see Geofffrey Roper's 'Arabic Printing and Publishing in England before 1820', published in 'British Society for Middle Eastern Studies', Vol. 12, No. 1, 1985].
£450
SMIRKE, Sydney. Suggestions for the Architectural Improvement of the Western Part of London. London. Priestley & Weale. 1834.
[PROVENANCE: Ownership signature ‘W. S. Booth’ in sepia ink to title; from the collection of architect Patrick McNeil with his notes (see below) inserted loose]
The aquatint plates give an idea of the grandeur of Smirke's ideas and imagination, the first, by William Daniell after Smirke, is titled 'The Proposed Situation in the Green Park for New Parliamentary Buildings'; the second and possibly even more ambitious, by J. E. Coombs after Smirle, is titled 'Proposed Situation on the North Bank of the Serpentine for a National Edifice to Receive the Monuments of Illustrious Men'.
'Sidney Smirke, whose whole career was overshadowed by that of his brother, Robert, here puts forward his own views on the creation of an impressive government image which was to include an entire nucleus of palaces and offices in Green Park, a Westminster embankment and a Gothic temple on the Serpentine to hold the tombs defacing the interior of Westminster Abbey ... Smirke's plan included slum clearance with proposed dormitories and recreation centres, widening of streets especially in Soho,
and more direct routes through the West End. It is clarified by a colour map. His proposed major entrance from Trafalgar Square into the Mall is the only suggestion that actually materialised later.' (Weinreb).
The inserted cuttings, those of the previous owner, the architect Patrick McNeil, include his extensive notes regarding the history of London's sewerage written on the verso of the announcement of a RIBA meeting. That meeting, held in December 1959, of the RIBA Library Group, included a talk 'The records of the Commissioners of Sewers as sources for the history of building development in London during the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries' by Miss Ida Darlington, M.A., F.S.A., F.L.A., Librarian and Archivist to the London County Council. Other inclusions are cuttings from booksellers' catalogues including the announcement, from Batsford in 1958, of a copy of the present work offered for '21s' and bound in 'h[al]f. calf.' that is likely this very example.
Although well represented in institutions: COPAC details a number of copies including those at the BL, National Library of Scotland, Cambridge, the Courtauld and the V & A while OCLC lists a number in the US (Princeton, Columbia, Harvard, Yale and others), the book is scarce on the market with only a handful of copies at auction in
The scarce first edition of Sydney Smirke’s ambitious proposals for improvements in the West End.
the last 50 years. RBH also lists a copy (from the collection of Richard Grant White Esq.) sold by Bangs & Co. in New York in 1885 although it does not record the price.
Tall 8vo. (254 x 162 mm). pp. (i), (ii), 117, (i). Half-title, title with printer’s credit verso, large folding leaf (unfolded: 486 x 322 mm) with engraved plan of ‘the Proposed Improvements’ with additional colouring by hand and the text of Smirke’s ‘Suggestions’ illustrated with two aquatint plates, final leaf with printer’s credit verso. Contemporary green half-calf over marbled boards, smooth spine with gilt title, marbled endpapers, t.e.g.
[Weinreb 24:86].
