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Guercino (artist); Oliviero Gatti (engraver). Sereniss. Mantuae Duci Ferdinando
Gonzaghae DD. Jo. Franciscus Barberius Centen. Inventor.
Rome: Gio. Giacomo
de Rossi, not before 1648. Single broadsheet volume, 22 copper-engraved plates bound
in full contemporary limp vellum. $4800.
One of the earliest drawing manuals published in Italy. Opening with images of
the human eye, the manual examines the anatomy of other isolated features,
then turns to character studies of various ages and types in action. The copper
engravings reproduce designs by the young Guercino (Giovanni Francesco
Barbieri), the Italian Baroque painter known for his fluid, naturalistic early style.
Joshua Reynolds; [John Singer Sargent]. The Literary Works of Sir Joshua
Reynolds.
London: Bell and Daldy, 1872-1873. Two octavo volumes, original green
cloth. Bookplate of John Singer Sargent to both pastedowns, Sargent’s signature and
“Christmas 1874” inscribed in both volumes. $1200.
Victorian set of the writings of eighteenth-century English painter Joshua
Reynolds, the first president of London’s Royal Academy of Arts, and the leading
society portraitist of his era. From the library of the great nineteenth-century
American portraitist, John Singer Sargent, who like Reynolds immortalized the
leading figures of his day in the grand manner.
Nathalie Parain. Ribambelles: Images Découpées de Nathalie Parain.
Paris: Flammarion, (1938). Large quarto, original stiff color pictorial wrappers.
24 pages printed in deep blue. $150.
Early edition of Soviet
émigrée
Parain’s pioneering activity book for children,
first published in 1932, inspired by her Russian Constructivist training. A striking
workbook of cut paper decorations, silhouettes, and garlands, accompanied by
Flammarion’s 2004 facsimile reissue.
Maurice Denis. Premiers Paysages. Les Leçons de Choses du Petit Coloriste.
Paris: Henri Laurens, [1911]. Quarto, original color pictorial paper boards, seven color
plates and seven matching uncolored plates, with two additional uncolored plates
reproducing the color images on the boards. $3800.
First edition of Maurice Denis’s iconic modernist coloring book. A founding
member of the group of French painters known as Les Nabis, Denis was invited
by editor Henri Laurens to contribute to his series of art books for children.
In response, Denis produced this series of dreamlike French landscapes: vibrant
scenes of villages and mountains, countryside and seashore, with captions by
Denis that provide a running commentary on his creative process. In 1912, the
bibliophilic society “Les XX” commissioned a deluxe edition of twenty signed
copies, featuring an extra plate and multiple impressions of each image. This
inexpensive trade edition, while less lavishly produced, reflects the book’s
original identity as a cheerful, ephemeral activity book.
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[Oscar Wilde]. The Importance of Being Earnest. A Trivial Comedy for Serious
People by the Author of Lady Windermere’s Fan.
London: Leonard Smithers, 1899.
Small quarto, original mauve cloth gilt, housed in a custom box. $4500.
First trade edition of OscarWilde’s virtuosic comedy of mistaken identity, his last
and best play, one of 1000 copies. The farcical plot is secondary toWilde’s brilliant
dialogue, which flirts with absurdity but never wholly commits: “Ignorance is
like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone.”
The Importance of Being
Earnest
was an immediate popular and critical success, butWilde’s 1895 conviction
for “gross indecency” put an end to the play’s run. His name appears nowhere in
the published edition.
Oscar Wilde. Poems.
London: David Bogue, 1881. Octavo, early twentieth-century
full red crushed morocco gilt, inlaid floral medallions. $4800.
First edition of OscarWilde’s first book of poems, one of 250 copies. By his
mid-twenties,Wilde had enjoyed considerable success as a poet, and published
this handsomely printed collection at his own expense. Disappointed by the book’s
sales,Wilde turned from poetry to the more profitable genres of fiction and
drama, but always considered himself a poet before all, declaring that he would be
remembered as “the infamous St Oscar of Oxford, Poet and Martyr.” A fine copy
of a major literary debut, splendidly bound by Root & Son.
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