MODERNISM

[Robert Herrmann, Czechoslovak bookplate artist and architect.] Seventeen original bookplates for various individuals, ranging in style from modernist to traditional, in folder with autograph label by the artist, and photograph of sculpture.

Author: 
Robert Herrmann (1897-1936), Czechoslovak bookplate artist and architect, born and died in Prague [Judaica]
bookplates
bookplates2
Publication details: 
The seventeen bookplates dated between 1922 and 1925. [Prague, Czechoslovak Republic.]
£350.00
bookplates
bookplates2

Accomplished and attractive bookplates, in an impressive range of styles from modernist to traditional (several with mystical or masonic overtones), produced using various printing processes. The bookplates range in size from 6.5 x 7 cm (Herrmann’s own) to 11.5 x 17.5 cm. Each is dated with Herrmann’s tiny monogram design, adapted to suit its style of composition. The eighteen items are in very good condition, each laid down on a 16 x 25 cm piece of textured grey card.

[Jacob Schwartz, American-born proprietor of the Ulysses Bookshop in London, dealer in James Joyce and the Modernists.] Autograph Letter Signed

Author: 
Jacob Schwartz [Jake Schwartz] (b. 1899, fl. 1960), New York dentist who turned to bookselling and founded the Ulysses bookshop in London, dealing largely in James Joyce and the Modernists
Publication details: 
23 October [no year]. On letterhead of the Ulysses Bookshop, 20 Bury Street, London WC1.
£80.00

Several James Joyce scholars have turned their attention to Schwartz, an early dealer in his books and manuscripts, as well as publisher of a couple of pirated editions. See William S. Brockman, 'Jacob Schwartz - The Fly in the Honey' in Joyce Studies Annual, Summer 1998. 1p, 4to. On the Ulysses Bookshop letterhead, printed on green paper. Addressed to 'Dear Sir:' and with valediction 'Au Revoir / Dr J Schwartz / prop / Ulysses Books'.

[John Nash, prominent English painter.] Autograph Signature.

Author: 
John Nash [John Northcote Nash, RA] (1893-1977), prominent English painter
John Nash
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£35.00
John Nash

A good example of Nash’s attractive and distinctive signature ‘John Nash’ on a very light dotted line, a piece of paper cut into an oval roughly 5 cm wide and 2.5 cm high. In good condition, lightly aged, laid down on an irregularly-shaped piece of card. See Image

[Elliott Carter, American modernist composer.] Publicity photograph with Signed Autograph Inscription.

Author: 
Elliott Carter [Elliott Cook Carter Jr.] (1908-2012), American modernist composer
Carter
Publication details: 
Dated by Carter 28 March 1972. No place.
£150.00
Carter

Black and white print of an 11.5 x 15 cm head and shoulders portrait of a smiling Carter on 12.5 x 21 cm piece of shiny paper. In good condition. Beneath the portrait, in red ink, Carter writes: ‘for Michael Robuck / Elliott Carter, March 28, ’72.’ On the reverse, in another hand, is the note ‘4. 3. 72 / Elliott Carter Composer’. See Image.

[Signed 'T.S. Eliot''] Italian News' [featuring 'Talk on Dante' by T. S. Eliot, the printed version of a lecture entitled 'What Dante Means to Me''].

Author: 
T. S. Eliot [The Italian Institute; Dante Alighieri]
Publication details: 
July, 1950. 'This journal is edited by The Italian Institute [39 Belgrave Square S.W.1]'. Printed by T. G. Norris, London, N.W.8.
£150.00

Gallup C552. 4to (leaf dimensions 28 x 22.5 cm), 40 pp. Stapled. In original blue printed wraps. Worn and dogeard on aged paper, with minor staining at foot of front wrap and first leaf. The signature "T S Eliot" (possibly his but more words would have helped) appears top front wrap. The 'Calendar' at the front lists, on 4 July [1950], the 'Lecture by Mr. T. S. Eliot, O.M.: "What Dante Means to Me," with H.E. the Italian Ambassador in the Chair.' The printed version, titled 'TALK ON DANTE | by T. S.

[ 'Erik Designer' [ Erik Nordgreen ]', Danish stage and costume designer. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Erik') to the London bookseller Barry Duncan, with two handbill advertisements, one on coloured card (with portrait drawing) and one a handbill.

Author: 
'Erik Designer' [ Erik Nordgreen (1921-1987) ], Danish stage and costume designer, based in Bootham, York [ 'Formerly with Tobis (Continental) Films' ]
Publication details: 
Letter from a Blackpool address, on his letterhead with 'Perm. Address . . . Eastfield House, 32 Grosvenor Terrace, Bootham, York'. 6 April 1946. Handbill with same York address; card with both Blackpool and York addresses.
£150.00

ONE: Letter: 1p., 4to. In fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. He asks Duncan to look out for books in a number of fields, beginning with ones 'on old-time stagecraft giving technical data & information on trick effects, transformation scenes, etc, with particular reference to pantomime'. TWO: Advertisement. Printed in black on one side of a 14 x 26.5 cm piece of blue card. Folded twice to make three 14 x 8.5 cm pages in concertina. In stamped postmarked envelope, with his device printed in red on cover, addressed to Duncan at the Thule Gallery, St Martin's Court.

[ Victor Pasmore, artist and architect. ] Autograph Card Signed ('Victor'), thanking Basil [ Jonsen ] for his appreciation.

Author: 
Victor Pasmore [ Edwin John Victor Pasmore ], English abstract artist and architect
Publication details: 
With letterhead, 12 St German's Place, Blackheath, London. 1 June 1965.
£56.00

Written on one side of a 10 x 14.5 cm card, beneath a stylish 'modern' letterhead. Somewhat aged and worn. The message reads: '1/6/65 | Dear Basil, | Very many thanks indeed for your letter - believe me your appreciation is tremendously valued. | All good wishes | Victor'. The recipient is identified in another hand on the reverse, with an address and directions.

[ George J. Firmage, literary critic. ] Folder of material relating to e. e. Cummings and his wife (christmas card from them, pamphlet by Holley Cantine inscribed by her, cuttings, offprint, photographs), with poem inscribed to him by Oscar Williams.

Author: 
George James Firmage (1928-2005), authority on e. e. Cummings [ Edward Estlin Cummings (1894-1962); Marion Morehouse Cummings (1906-69); 'Oscar Williams' [ pen-name of Oscar Kaplan (1900-1964)] ]
Publication details: 
Most items from New York City. Dating from between 1962 and 1972.
£320.00

George James Firmage was born in New York; attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1947-48) and College of the City of New York (1949); BA, New York University, 1952; pursued graduate study, University of Massachusetts, 1952-54; publications supervisor in advertising and marketing services department, First National City Bank, New York, 1954; wrote several books, including E.E. Cummings: a Miscellany (1958) and E.E. Cummings: a Bibliography; editor of A Garland for Dylan Thomas (1963) and of E.E. Cummings' Three Plays and a Ballet (1967).

[ Desmond Harmsworth, publisher. ] Two printed catalogues: 'A First List' and 'Spring Books | Nineteen Thirty-Two'.

Author: 
Desmond Harmsworth [ Cecil Desmond Bernard Harmsworth (1903-1990) ], publisher, 44 Great Russell Street, London, WC1 [ Ezra Pound; James Joyce; Mary Butts ]
Publication details: 
Desmond Harmsworth, 44 Great Russell Street, London WC1. 1931 and 1932. [ The first 'Printed by George W. Jones, At the Sign of The Dolphin, Gough Square, London, EC4. ]
£80.00

Two stitched pamphlets of uniform design. 15pp., 12mo, and 19pp., 12mo. Tastefully printed, with covers in red and black. Both items in good condition, lightly aged and worn. The first volume - 'A First List' - has a full-page 'Advertisement' by 'D. H.', in which he aspires to 'offer a fair proportion of what is alive in modern writing - a hope which is my raison d'etre as a publisher [...] nothing, if not lack of sense, or lack of the desire, need stop one from printing whatever is available, and has intrinsic vitality or permanence'.

[Violet Eleanor Scott-James, wife of Rolfe Arnold Scott-James, editor of the 'New Weekly'.] Long Autograph Letter Signed ('V. E. S. J.') [to the Irish journalist Robert Lynd], with reference to Wyndham Lewis, Charlotte Mew, Ivy Low and Mary Crosbie.

Author: 
Violet Eleanor Scott-James [née Brooks] (c.1886-1942), wife of Rolfe Arnold Scott-James (1878-1959), editor of the New Weekly [Robert Lynd (1879-1949); Percy Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957)]
Publication details: 
Addressed from 'Dunedin', Lower Rock Garden, Brighton, on letterhead of 4 Colville Square [London], W. 15 July 1914.
£120.00

4pp., 4to. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper, with short closed tears at heads of both leaves. The recipient is not named, but the letter is from the Lynd family papers. Robert Lynd was in St Ives at the time of writing, and the letter begins: 'I'm so glad you are in such a nice place & that the children can join you there. They will love it. London gets so odious by the 15th of July. I came her e last week as I was very tired, & sick of the stuffy feeling of everything.

Long Typed List [by Rolfe Arnold Scott-James?], with numerous emendations and additions in manuscript, headed 'List of Reviewers [in the London Mercury] since October, 1934.'

Author: 
[Rolfe Arnold Scott-James (1878-1959), editor of The London Mercury from 1934, succeeding Sir J. C. Squire [Sir John Collings Squire] (1884-1958]
Publication details: 
Without place or date. [London, 1938 or 1939?]
£250.00

2pp., 4to. In fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. The first page consists of a typescript in two columns, with names scored through and a few added in pencil. The second page has a few typewritten names, together with dozens added in pencil, clearly at different times. From 1919 the London Mercury's original editor J. C. Squire promoted the traditional verse of the Georgian Poets and their prose counterparts; on taking over in October 1934 Scott-James embraced the more fashionable modernist writing, and that change is reflected in the present list.

[Printed pamphlet.] Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Seneca. (An Address read before the Shakespeare Association 18th March, 1927). By T. S. Eliot.

Author: 
T. S. Eliot [The Shakespeare Association, London]
Publication details: 
London: Published for the Shakespeare Association by Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, Amen House, Warwick Square, E.C. 1927.
£85.00

8vo, 17 + [i] pp. Stapled. In original grey wraps. Aged and worn copy of a scarce item.

Typed Note Signed by Carl Van Vechten to 'Miss Lucha', thanking her for a copy of the Gertrude Stein number of the Academic Observer.

Author: 
Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964), American author and literary executor of Gertrude Stein [Margaret Lucha; the Academic Observer]
Typed Note Signed by Carl Van Vechten
Publication details: 
15 April 1937; on Van Vechten's 101 Central Park West, New York, letterhead.
£150.00
Typed Note Signed by Carl Van Vechten

8vo, 1 p. Typed and signed in light-blue, beneath green letterhead, and with 'CARL VAN VECHTEN' 'watermark' at centre of page. Text clear and complete. On lightly aged paper, worn and dogeared at extremities. He thanks her for the copy of 'the Academic Observer (Gertrude Stein number) which intererested me so much that I am writing to ask if I may have another copy for a friend of mine, Please.' Autograph note explains that the 'friend' is one 'who also collects Steiniana'. Docketed in pencil on reverse: 'Miss Mallory | Keep this until I call - someday I will. | [signed] M. Lucha'.

Wyndham Lewis and Vorticism. The Tate Gallery. 6 July - 19 August 1956.

Author: 
Wyndham Lewis [Tate Gallery, 1956; Sir John Rothenstein]
Publication details: 
London: Tate Gallery, 1956.
£45.00

4to: 36 pp + 12 pp of prints on art paper. Stapled. In striking original printed red card wraps. With A4 addendum leaf loosely inserted. Good, with light stain to bottom outer corner. Important two-page introduction by Lewis, reviewing his career, followed by three-page essay by Rothenstein on 'Wyndham Lewis and Vorticism'.

The Plight of the Creative Artist in the United States of America.

Author: 
Henry Miller [Bern Porter]
Publication details: 
[Houlton, Maine: Bern Porter, 1944.]
£75.00

8vo: paginated 3-38. Four full-page reproductions of Miller's paintings. In original yellow printed wraps. On brittle, aged paper, with the body of the book detached from the wraps, which are worn and with one corner at front creased. Title taken from front wrap. One of 950 numbered copies, signed by the publisher on the final page (beneath 'Publisher's Addendum') 'Bern Porter | 25 South St | Houlton Maine | Copy # 296'. Shifreen &Jackson A37a. Uncommon. Apart from the British Library, COPAC only lists copies at Cambridge, Manchester, Oxford and Bristol.

First printing of his essay '[Ur-Gerausch]' ['Primal Noise'].

Author: 
Rainer Maria Rilke
Publication details: 
In 'Das Inselschiff' (Leipzig: Im Insel-Verlag, October 1919).
£35.00

The magazine consists of 48 pages, octavo, in original yellow printed wraps. Dogeared, and on aged paper, and with the grubby wraps quite heavily worn. 12mo publicity handbill loosely inserted. Rilke's contribution, dated 'Soglio, am Tage Mariae Himmelfahrt 1919', is on pp 14-20.

Engraving ('ACTS XXVII XXXV') by Eric Gill from a drawing by David Jones; with long typewritten transcript from a letter from Jones to Evan Gill.

Author: 
David Jones; Eric Gill; Evan Gill
Publication details: 
The engraving dated by Jones (in the letter) to around 1935. The letter dated 22 November 1957.
£400.00

The engraving illustrates the biblical passage describing an incident during the wreck off Crete of a ship carrying Saint Paul. Acts 27:35: 'And when he had thus spoken, he took bread, and gave thanks to God in presence of them all: and when he had broken it, he began to eat.' Printed on one side of a piece of paper, 28 x 19 cm, with one rough edge. A striking image, irregularly shaped, with white lines against a black background, showing centurions and others on the deck of a ship on a stormy sea, with land in the distance.

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