Craig, [Edward] Gordon

Hackbridge, Surrey, London: Published at the Sign of the Rose, 1899. Hackbridge, Surrey, London: Published at the Sign of the Rose, 1899. First Edition. 4to, unpag. in original cloth-backed pictorial boards. Covers heavily rubbed; spine label's printing all but entirely rubbed off; inner hinges partly sprung, still a sound, presentable copy. Item #207135

Craig's first book, of which 550 copies were printed (this one is numbered 210) about half of which Craig destroyed when he tired of the process of coloring them by hand. The present copy is fully hand-colored and is, furthermore, an inscribed presentation copy of the first order, linking two of the great figures in the performing arts of the emerging modernist movement: "To Isadora Duncan from Edward Craig, 1905." On the front pastedown is Isadora Duncan's Craig-designed and printed bookplate, also hand-colored. Craig and Duncan met in Berlin in 1905 and embarked on an intense and historic love-affair that lasted until 1907. In her autobiography, Duncan described her first encounter with Craig: "This was not a young man making love to a girl. This was the meeting of twin souls. The light covering of flesh was so transmuted with ecstasy that earthly passion became a heavenly embrace of white, fiery flame." And, later "It was my fate to inspire the great love of this genius; and it was my fate to endeavour to reconcile the continuing of my own career with his love. Impossible combination! After the first few weeks of wild, impassioned love-making, there began the waging of the fiercest battle that was ever known, between the genius of Gordon Craig and the inspirations of my art." Their tempestuous affair resulted in the birth of Duncan's first child, Deirdre (1906-1913). Although the conflict between their artistic egos proved irreconcilable, Craig and Duncan remained close. The Book of Penny Toys is a landmark of British illustration and has always been scarce. It is Craig's personal paean to the wooden toy, constructed out of verses and bold illustrations of many examples, and printed on a heavy paper ordinarily used for the manufacture of sugar bags for grocers. With the original printed prospectus laid in, 8 unpaginated leaves including another hand-colored illustration. Fletcher & Rood A1(a). Price: $25,000.00

Ono, Yoko

Tokyo: Wunternaum Press, 1964. Tokyo: Wunternaum Press, 1964. First Edition. Square 12mo, unpag.; original wrappers, titled on the front; with additional ephemera on five legal-sized leaves. Wear to spine and edges, front wrapper and first few leaves pulled loose; some soil and marking; ephemera folded, with a few short tears and marks, and some small holograph corrections. Item #206318

One of a stated 500 copies -- and likely fewer -- in the first edition of Ono's first book, a compendium of concept pieces in the form of instructions. The book is a significant landmark of Ono's important early concept pieces, in advance of the Conceptual Art movement of the 1970s, and marking her involvement with the Fluxus group of avant-garde artists and composers. Most of the works documented in Grapefruit date from the early 1960s; some go as far back as to the early 1950s. The contents are divided into five groups: Music, Painting, Event, Poetry, and Object. This copy has been inscribed and signed by Ono on a preliminary leaf in 1966, signed in full. It is accompanied by two rare pieces of ephemera: "To the Wesleyan People. . ." Ono's printed manifesto dated January 23, 1966 on four legal-size pages; and "Ono's Sales List," single legal-size page with printed list of available works, copyrighted 1965 and including a wide range of concept works such as "Soundtape of Snow Falling at Dawn," "Touch Poems," "Machines" (e.g. "Crying Machine- machine drops tears and cries for you when coin is deposited" and "Sky Machine- machine produces nothing when coin is deposited"); "Events," "Music Scores," and "Books (including Grapefruit). Ono has stated that the list was produced in an edition of just 200 copies for supporters of her work. All of the items were obtained by the recipient of the inscription at the Event called "The Stone," created by Ono and her then-husband Anthony Cox at New York's Judson Church, during which visitors were invited to experience existence inside of loosely woven black cotton bags. "To the Wesleyan People. . ." is the clearest statement that Ono produced to explain her artistic philosophy. It was included in the later trade edition of Grapefruit. Also present is a contemporary review of the Judson Church evening from the New York Herald Tribune. Price: $18,500.00

Ellington, Duke

Chicago: n.d. (1930s). Chicago: n.d. (1930s). 8 X 10 inch black and white gelatin silver print on textured matte-surface paper, with photographer's studio insignia in lower left corner. A bit of a wrinkle at the upper right corner, otherwise just about fine. Item #206233

An excellent publicity portrait of Ellington in his prime, inscribed and signed: "To the most charming Carine, loads o luck, Duke." The "Maurice" studio in Chicago was Ellington's preferred provider of publicity photos and they produced many over the years. This one shows a young and confident-looking Ellington looking directly at the camera. Price: $1,650.00

(Picasso, Pablo) Thomson, Virgil & Hugnet, Georges

[Paris: L'usage de la Parole, 1940]. [Paris: L'usage de la Parole, 1940]. First Edition. 4to, 6 unpag. leaves loosely inserted in stiff wrappers. Spine split; corners bumped; some general soil, one very small tear at the top, but otherwise without significant wear. Item #206211

Thomson first set Hugnet's poems to music in 1927. They were his first French songs. Here the songs are printed, for the first time, in lithographic facsimile of Thomson's handwriting on S.A.V. Vélin, scored for voice and piano. The lithographic front wrapper is by Pablo Picasso. As near as we can ascertain, a small number of copies were produced to send as gifts to friends and to subscribers to Hugnet's short-lived periodical, L'usage de la parole. It seems likely that the songs were intended to be included in a fourth number of the magazine (number 3 in April 1940 announced Thomson as a contributor to the next number) but the magazine ceased publication before a fourth number could be completed, when German armed forces marched into France in May. It is unclear how many copies might have been produced and actually sent to subscribers. The small number of institutional holdings suggests that the wartime conditions must have curtailed the effort. There was also a limited edition, said to be only 40 copies, signed by Hugnet and Thomson (but not Picasso) and specially bound. In April of 1940, Thomson wrote to Maurice Grosser: "My Picasso cover for La Valse Grégorienne is quite handsome. It is just the words of the title as I gave them to him and a couple of curlycues added, no picture or anything, which is exactly what I wanted, also the signature large and impressive..." Later, in his autobiography, Thomson confessed that had feared that Picasso's artistic power might overwhelm his own and so he asked him specifically to limit his cover to the text provided. Thomson's musical 'portrait' of Picasso, "Bugles & Birds," was composed in April, 1940 as a gesture of thanks for this work. Very scarce and fragile. Not recorded in Bloch's Catalogue Raisonée. Price: $2,500.00

Bradbury, Ray

(Los Angeles): 1949. (Los Angeles): 1949. Tempera on cardstock paper, approx. 10 X 14 in. Wear to edges; some flaking of the surface. Item #205718

Nighttime cityscape depicting images of Los Angeles, with the central image of a streetcar filled with passengers and all around lighted signs (Bond Pants, Follies, Tivoli Theatre, Beer, Parking, Wine, Ice) a lamppost, a telephone booth, and a leafy tree. Signed "R. Bradbury - July, 1949" at the bottom. In a 2009 interview with the LA Times, Bradbury recalled his early exposure to art and stated that "painting has been part of my life since I was a child . . . My artwork doesn't inspire my writing, it's my writing that inspires my artwork." The streetcar figures in some of Bradbury's stories, including "The Trolley" in the collection Dandelion Wine. Given the date, however, it is conceivable that this image may have been inspired by a 1947 story Bradbury published in the New Yorker, in which a Mexican immigrant is forced to leave his adopted home of Los Angeles: "On many nights he had walked the silent streets and seen the bright clothes in the windows and bought some of them, and he had seen the jewels and bought some of them for his few lady friends. And he had gone to picture shows five nights a week for a while. Then, also, he had ridden the streetcars—all night some nights—smelling the electricity, his dark eyes moving over the advertisements, feeling the wheels rumble under him, watching the little sleeping houses and big hotels slip by." (Provenance: the estate of LA musician, composer, and longtime UCLA faculty member Theodore Norman, who was given the painting by Bradbury). Price: $15,000.00