Russian Avant-Garde Books

RUSSIAN AVANT-GARDE BOOKS

sims reed rare books

BURLIUK, David & Nikolai, Vladimir Mayakovsky & Velimir Khlebnikov. Trebnikh troikh.

Sbornik stikhov i risunkov. (Missal of the Three: A Collection of Poems and Drawings). Moscow. G. L. Kuz’min and S. D. Dolinskii. 1913.

8vo. pp. 86, (2). Illustrated with fifteen hors-texte monochrome plates (mainly portraits) by various Burliuks (Nadezhda, Vladimir and David), Vladimir Mayakovsky and Vladimir Tatlin. Later cloth-backed boards with original front and rear wrapper and title label pasted down. Two plates with the stamp of the Mayakovsky library.

The ground-breaking literary and artistic anthology of Russian Futurism.

From the edition limited to 1,100 copies.

The title, a triumph of alliteration over meaning (Markov), is an allusion to religion (the Trinity) and an ironic pun because there were actually four authors and at least five artists, unless the brothers Burliuk can be counted as one.

The anthology includes miniature poems by Velimir Khlebnikov, Mayakovsky’s From One Street to Another and many by the aforementioned brothers Burliuk. This copy differs from that in the MoMA catalogue (Rowell & Wye) in that it has fifteen plates rather than the thirteen mentioned therein.

[Rowell & Wye 54].

£1,500

ROZANOVA & SHKOL’NIK. Various Authors. ‘Soiuz molodezhi’ pri uchastii poetov ‘Gileia’. (The Union of Youth in Collaboration with the Gileia Poets. No. 3). St. Petersburg. Soiuz molodezhi.

1913.

Square 4to. (240 x 240 mm). [53 leaves; pp. 82, (ii)]. Illustrated with eleven monochrome hors-texte lithographs, six of them by Olga Rozanova and five by Iosif Shkol’nik, each printed recto only on thin tan paper.

Original publisher’s stapled purple printed wrappers with a printed design in black.

The striking collaborative journal of The Union of Youth group of artists and the Gileia poets.

From the edition limited to 1,000 copies.

Formed in 1910 under the chairmanship of Levkii Zheverzheiev, the Union of Youth group (consisting of David and Vladimir Burliuk, Alexandra Exter, Kazimir Malevich, Olga Rozanova, Iosif Shkol’nik, Mikhail Matiushin, Benedict Livshits, Marc Chagall, Ivan Kliun and so on) was dedicated to the development of technical innovation in painting. The decision to publish a journal led to collaboration with the Gileia group of poets (Vladimir Mayakovsky, Velimir Khlebnikov, Elena Guro, Alexei Kruchenykh and others).

This, the third number of the journal, contains the following: - Text by Eduard Spandikiv (five pages).

- August Baller’s The Everyday Apollo and the Negritudinous Apollo (five pages).

- Olga Rozanova’s The Foundations of the New Art (nine pages).

- Mikhail Matiushin’s synopsis of the seminal Du Cubisme by Metzinger and Gleizes (ten pages).

- Nicolai Burliuk’s Vladimir Davidovich Burliuk (four pages).

- Velimir Khlebnikov’s Teacher and Pupil and Conversations between Two Personnages (four pages).

- A prose sketch by Elena Guro (two pages).

- Poems by David Burliuk (two), Nicolai Burliuk (six), Benedict Livshits (three), Aleksei Kruchenykh (four, including his famous poem describing the pleasure of lying next to a pig which provided much ammunition for Futurism’s critics) and Velimir Khlebnikov (one).

[Rowell & Wye 45 / 46].

£3,500

MALEVICH. Guro, Elena, Aleksei Kruchenykh and Velimir Khlebnikov. Troe. (The Three). St. Petersburg. Zhuravl’. 1913.

Square 8vo. pp. 95 on pale green paper. Illustrated with four monochrome reproductions of works by Kasimir Malevich on pale green paper. Original publisher’s printed wrappers with original monochrome lithograph by Malevich to front cover and lithograph typographical text to rear, discreet repairs to head and base of spine.

A good copy of the homage to Elena Guro with the original lithograph wrappers by Malevich.

From the edition limited to 500 copies; this copy with a small ownership inscription to top of front cover.

Dedicated to the memory of Elena Guro (1877-1913), Troe contains eighteen of Guro’s poems, a prelude to the Futurist opera Victory Over the Sun (for which Malevich had designed the costumes and sets) with music by Mikhail Matiushin, two poems and two stories by Velimir Khlebnikov and four poems and two essays by Aleksei Kruchenykh.

[Rowell & Wye 38; Nakov F-350a-bis & 350b for Malevich’s cover].

£4,000

KRUCHENYKH, Aleksei. Sobstvennye Razkazy i Risunki Detei. (Actual Stories and Drawings by Children). St. Petersburg. EUY. 1914.

Small 4to. (234 x 182 mm). [24 leaves: 16 leaves of orange paper, 8 leaves of green paper; pp. (32), 33 - 48].

Monochrome lithograph illustration and text on 16 leaves of thin orange paper by various children (including P. Bakharev, Marianna Erlikh and Nina Kul’bina) and 8 leaves of thick green paper with letterpress text in Russian. (Several leaves unopened, some small spots to first leaf of letterpress text). Original publisher’s paper wrappers with titles in black to front and rear covers.

Kruchenykh’s anthology collecting the drawings and stories of children.

This work compiled by Aleksei Kruchenykh, here in the first edition, features poems, stories and tales by children aged between 7 and 11 years. Kruchenykh was fascinated by the ability of children to find inspiration and by the spontaneity and purity of their vision, facets of art that were primary concerns of the Russian avant-garde of the period.

[Rowell & Wye 96].

£3,000

ROZANOVA / BURLIUK. Kruchenykh, Aleksei. Stikhi V. Maiakovskogo. Vypyt. (The Poetry of V. Mayakovsky. (An Enquiry)). St. Petersburg. EUY. 1914.

8vo. pp. 29, (2). Illustrated with an original hors-text monochrome lithograph printed on green paper by Olga Rozanova tipped-in before the title-page. Original publisher’s greenish printed wrappers with an illustration by David Burliuk.

Kruchenykh’s analysis of Mayakovsky’s poetry with the original lithograph by Olga Rozanova.

From the edition limited to 1,000 copies, with an original lithograph (signed in the stone) by Rozanova.

[Rowell & Wye 70].

£5,500

STRELETS. Belenson, Aleksandr (Ed.). Strelets. Sbornik Pervyi. (The Archer, First Collection).

Petrograd. 1915.

4to. (258 x 195 mm). [pp. 216]. 12 letterpress illustrations on blue paper by Burliuk, Kul’bin, Lentulov, Remizov, Rosanova, Wyndham Lewis and Siniakova. Original orange wrappers with letterpress illustration and manuscript text by Kul’bin.

First of the Strelets journals, containing the work of the Hylaea group. the most influential of the Russian literary Futurists.

From the edition limited to 5000 copies.

[Rowell & Wye 114].

£1,400

STRELETS. Belenson, Aleksandr (Ed.). Strelets. Sbornik Vtoroi No. 2. (The Archer. Second Collection). Petrograd. 1916.

4to. (255 x 180 cm). pp. 143. With single tipped-in colour plate by Nikolai Kul’bin. Original wrappers with designs by Kul’bin and Burliuk, front cover detached with minor loss to spine and lower edges.

The second issue of Strelets.

From the edition limited to 2000 copies.

[Rowell & Wye 124].

£1,200

VARIOUS ARTISTS & POETS. Korneev, Boris (Ed.). Kuranty. Ezhemesiachnik Literatury i Iskusstva. (Chimes: A Monthly of Literature and Art). Nos. 1 - 4. [All Published]. Tbilisi. December 1918 - February / March 1919.

4 issues in 3. 4to. (c.220 x 190 mm). pp. 24; 26, (i); 29, (ii). Printed text and verse in Russian throughout, no. 1 with 3 mounted monochrome zincograph illustrations by A. N. Geevski, no. 2 with monochrome illustrations by Terent’ev and P. Iashvili, issue 3 with monochrome illustrations by Goncharova and Kruchenykh. Stapled as issued in original publisher’s printed paper wrappers with titles to front covers in black (issue no. 2 in red and black, issues 2 and 3 /4 with publisher’s vignettes), issue 1 with advertisements to rear cover; repair to spine of issue 1, front cover of issue 2 detached.

An excellent complete set of the very scarce avant garde periodical Kuranty.

The short-lived literary and artistic periodical Kuranty, produced in Tbilisi during the Russian Cicil War, features contributions from many of the most important Russian and Georgian avant garde figures of the time: Alexei Kruchenykh and Igor Terent’ev contributed a large body of material, but the contrivbutions of Kyril Zdanevich, the editor Boris Korneev, Nikolai Sudeikin, Tatiana Vechorka, Rafalovich and others cannot be overlooked. Natalia Goncharova’s Portrait of A. Kruchenykh is reproduced in the final issue together with portraits by Kruchenykh himself. [not in Rowell & Wye].

£10,000

ZEMENKOV, Boris. Sadikov, Sergei (Ed.). Sobachiy Iashchik: Trudy Tvorcheskogo Biuro Nichevokov. (Dog’s Box: Creative Works by the Nothingness Bureau). Moscow. Khobo. 1922.

8vo. (244 x 160 mm). [8 leaves; pp. 14, (ii)]. Leaf with title recto and limitation verso (although this remains from the first edition!), half-title and six leaves with printed text in Cyrillic recto and verso, final leaf verso with typographic construction, advertisements to inner wrappers. Stapled as issued in original publisher’s printed wrappers, titles and monochrome illustration by Boris Zemenkov to front cover, publisher’s imprint and publication to rear.

An excellent copy of the subversive literary outpourings of the Bureau of Creative Nothingness.

From the edition limited to 300 copies.

Edited by Sergei Sadikov, Dog’s Box includes manifestoes, statements and declarative fictions - all parodic - by the Bureau of Creative Nothingness. Participants included Boris Zemenkov, K. Ovechin, Elena Nikolaeva, Aestii Ranov, Riurik Rok and Oleg Erberg. A first edition limited to 500 copies with identical content albeit a different cover was issued in the same year; this second edition has 1923 printed on the cover although the title gives the year as 1922.

Copies of Dog’s Box are scarce and we can trace only the copies at the Getty and the University of California (both of the first edition) together with that at MoMA (the second edition as here).

[Rowell & Wye 450].

£2,500

AL’TMAN, Natan. Kuzmin, Mikhail. Seti: Pervaia Kniga Stikhov. (Nets: First Book of Verse). St. Petersburg / Berlin. Petropolis. 1923.

8vo. (168 x 128 mm). pp. 206. Leaf with publisher’s vignette recto, leaf with half-title recto and publication details verso, printed title and Kuzman’s verse with section titles throughout, final three leaves with contents. Original publisher’s printed wrappers with linocut Constructivist design in blue and red by Al’tman, spine repaired.

The third edition of Kuzmin’s acclaimed verse collection but the first with Al’tman’s Constructivist cover.

Mikhail Kuzmin studied music under Rimsky-Korsakov but turned later to literature. His first novel Kryl’ia was published in 1906 and his first verse collection Seti followed in 1908. Seti, written while Kuzmin was associated with the Russian Symbolists, achieved wide acclaim. Later Kuzmin was crucial in the development of Acmeism and helped the early career of Anna Akhmatova. A homosexual, Kuzmin was the companion of the poet Yuri Yurkun (they met in 1913), until his death from pneumonia in 1936. Two years later Yurkun and many other writers and intellectuals were arrested during one of Stalin’s purges; all were shot.

A second edition of Seti was issued in 1915 and the verses were also included in Kuzmin’s collected works of 1916 before this third distinct edition appeared in 1923. Praised, parodied or derided, Seti, now considered tame or chaste, is lauded as a pioneering work of literature. £1,250

EHRENBURG, Ilya. Shest’ Povestei o Legikh Kontsakh. (Six Tales with Easy Endings). Moscow.

Puchina. 1925.

8vo. (182 x 132 mm). pp. 140, (i), (ii). Leaf with title recto and publication details verso and text of Ehrenburg’s six tales in Cyrillic, leaf with contents and final leaf with advertisements recto and verso. Original publisher’s printed wrappers with Constructivist titles to front cover in red, purple and black, publisher’s vignette and publication details to rear cover in black.

The scarce first Russian edition of Ilya Ehrenburg’s Six Tales with Easy Endings.

From the edition limited to 5,000 copies.

The first edition of Ehrenburg’s Six Tales was published in Berlin in 1922 and was illustrated by El Lissitzky. Ehrenburg’s tales are the following: Aktsionernoe Obshchestvo ‘Merkiur de Riussi’ (Joint Stock Company: ‘Mercure de Russe’), Opytno-Pokazatel’naia Koloniia No. 62 (Model Colony No. 62), Shifs-Karta (Ship’s Ticket), Sutki (Day), Vitrion and Isporchennaia Fil’ma (Ruined Film). The cover for the book features the title of the first story rather than the collective title of the whole as per the title page.

Although the artist responsible for the cover is here uncredited, it is plausible that it is the work of Ehrenburg’s wife, Liubov Kozintseva, who illustrated and designed several of his books in the 1920s.

£1,250

KRUCHENYKH, A. Na Bor’bu c Khuliganstrom v Literaturie. (Against Hooliganism in Literature). Moscow. Published by the author. 1926.

8vo. pp. 32. Front and rear lithographic cover designs by Gustav Klutsis. Original publisher’s printed wrappers.

A miscellany of poetry and essays on literature by Kruchenykh.

From the edition limited to 5,000 copies.

The miscellany aimed at establishing certain principles of literary production and criticism.

[Rowell & Wye 645].

£750

KLUTSIS. Kruchenykh, Aleksei. Priemy Leninskoi rechi. Kizucheniu iazyka Lenina. (Methods of Lenin’s Discourse: For the Study of Lenin’s Language). Moscow. Vserossiiskii soiuz poetov. 1928.

Small 8vo. pp. (2), 60, (4). Illustrated with four monochrome plates by Gustav Klutsis. Original publisher’s printed wrappers with typographical design in red and black by Gustav Klutsis.

Klutsis’ striking typographic cover.

From the edition limited to 1,000 copies.

[Rowell & Wye 741 / 742].

£1,400

KUSTODIEV, Boris. Zamiatin, Evgeny. Blokha: Igra v 4 d. (Flea: A Play in 4 Acts). Leningrad. Academia. 1927.

Small 8vo. (170 x 136 mm). [16 leaves; pp. 27, (iv)]. Leaf with title recto and publication details verso, text with 5 monochrome illustrations by Kustodiev including 3 full-page portraits, three leaves with advertisements and final leaf verso with contents. Original publisher’s printed wrappers stapled as issued by Kustodiev, front cover with elaborate lithograph design with title in red and blue, rear cover with publication details.

An excellent copy with Boris Kustodiev’s striking colour cover.

This critical analysis includes essays by Zamiatin, Eikhenbaum, Monakhov, Kustodiev (who designed the cover and provided the illustration for the book as well as stage designs for the original 1925 production) and Leifert.

This work is scarce and we can locate only the copy at the British Library in the UK as well as four copies in the US, at the NYPL, Indiana, Iowa and North Carolina. £2,250

LUNATSCHARSKY, A[natoli]. W. & Leo Hirsch. Der Russische Revolutionsfilm. Zurich / Lepzig.

Orell Füssli Verlag. 1929.

8vo. (194 x 128 mm). pp. 16. Half-title, printed title, Lunatscharsky’s text, ‘Zu Den Bildern’ by Leo Hirsch and 72 monochrome reproductions of photographs, stills from films on glossy paper. Original publisher’s red cloth-backed printed boards, front cover with monochrome illustration and titles in white, title to spine in black.

A very good copy of this fascinating study of early Russian cinema.

Issued as part of Dr. Emil Schaeffer’s Schabücher series (this was number 2) with commentary by the Soviet Commissar for Education Anatoly Lunacharsky and with analysis of the illustration by Leo Hirsch. The major part of the work is taken up with extensive illustration: monochrome reproductions of film stills taken from Eisenstein’s The General Line (1929), Battleship Potemkin (1925), and Ten Days that Shook the World (1928), Vsevolod Pudovkin’s Revolutionary trilogy The Mother (1926), The End of St. Petersburg (1927) and Storm Over Asia (1928) and others. £550

MALEVICH, Kasimir. Fedorov-Davydov, Aleksei. Vystavka Proizvedenii K. S. Malevich. (Exhibition of Works by K. S. Malevich). Moscow. Gosudarstvennaia Tret’iakovskaia Gallereia. 1929.

Small 8vo. (176 x 130 mm). [4 leaves; pp. 10 (wrappers incl.]. Publication details to inner front wrapper, leaf with monochrome reproduction of Malevich’s ‘Na Senokose’ (Haymaking) as frontispiece verso and three leaves with Fedorov-Davydov’s text recto and verso. Original publisher’s printed wrappers stapled as issued, titles to front cover in black, publisher’s vignette and credits to rear cover.

An excellent copy of the catalogue for the exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery intended to rehabilitate Malevich.

From the edition limited to 1,000 copies.

Malevich’s 1929 exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery (the foremost museum for Russian art in Moscow at the time) was an attempt, after his Suprematist work had been banned from exhibition in 1926, to reposition the artist as an adherent to peasant-inclined orthodoxy. To that end, the director of the modern department at the gallery, Aleksei Fedorov-Davydov, included an image of Malevich’s Na Senokose (Haymaking) alongside his analysis of Malevich’s development, the importance of art for Socialism and discussion of the gallery’s collection of art of the Revolution. Although the exhibition in Moscow was largely without controversy, the exhibition then moved to Kiev where Malevich’s work was impounded and the director of the Kiev Art Gallery arrested and imprisoned; Malevich did not have his work returned to him for more than two years.

[Rowell & Wye 828].

£2,750

ASEEV, Nikolai. Izbrannie stikhi. (Collected Verses). Moscow. Gosudarstvennoe Izdatel’stvo. 1930.

8vo. pp. 235, (6). Original publisher’s printed boards with a typographical design in blue, black and white

by Aleksandr Rodchenko.

Aseev’s collected verse with a striking cover by Rodchenko.

From the edition limited to 3,000 copies, this copy with an inscription to first leaf.

£350

PINUS, Natalia. Ptushko, Alexsandr. Mul’tiplikatsiia Fil’my. (Animated Films). Moscow. GIKhL. 1931.

Small 8vo. (178 x 128 mm). pp. 62, (ii)]. Leaf with title recto and publication details verso, leaf with Ptushko’s introduction and his text illustrated with 22 monochrome illustrations of animated scenes, puppets, apparatus and related material, final leaf with contents verso. Original publisher’s printed wrappers stapled as issued by Pinus, front cover with titles and monochrome photomontage illustration against a yellow background, rear cover with monochrome photomontage illustration.

An excellent copy of Ptushko’s illustrated study of stop-motion animation.

Often described as the Soviet Walt Disney, Aleksandr Ptushko (1900 - 1973) was a pioneer of Soviet film but most particularly of animated and stop-motion film. After initial work animating others’ films and projects, Ptushko’s talent was recognised and he began directing and making his own films in the late 1920s. Noted for his bold experiments with technique, Ptushko enjoyed considerable success after his ground-breaking Soviet version of Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, The New Gulliver of 1935.

Natalia Pinus, the designer of the cover of the present work, was a student of Gustav Klutsis, and, like her tutor, an early adopter of photomontage. £1,750

KUZNETSOV, Konstantin Vasilievich. Abramov, Al. Schepkhi Rezniki Zhest. (Wooden Chips, Rubber Bands and Tin-Plate). Moscow. Molodaiia Gvardiia. 1931.

Small 8vo. (172 x 124 mm). [16 leaves; pp. 32]. Leaf with title recto and publication details verso and Abramov’s text illustrated with 24 monochrome illustrations and diagrams by Kuznetsov, two full-page.

Original publisher’s printed wrappers stapled as issued by Kuznetsov, Constructivist typographic illustration to front cover in grey black and purple, publisher’s vignette in purple to rear cover with illustration of a ruler.

An excellent copy of this scarce Constructivist childrens book.

A beautifully illustrated instruction manual for children demonstrating how to make various toys (cars, trucks, tanks, a proto-skateboard cum go-cart) from found wood, rubber bands and tin. £1,750

VARIOUS ARTISTS. Kronman, Evgeny. Rabskiy Trud. (Slave Labour). Moscow. Ogiz-Izogiz. 1931.

Large 8vo. (260 x 184 mm). [16 leaves; pp. 31, (i)]. Leaf with title recto and credits verso, leaf with introductory text recto and verso and 14 leaves with text and numerous monochrome illustrations (see below), one in red and black, occasional lines of text in red, final leaf verso with contents. Original publisher’s cream stapled wrappers as issued, titles to front cover in black and photomontage illustration by Sergei Senkin in brown and black over front and rear covers.

An excellent copy of this very scarce analysis of capitalist exploitation with extensive satirical illustration.

From the edition limited to 5,000 copies.

The striking photomontage cover by Sergei Senkin depicts toiling exploited labourers of every kind, while the illustration throughout - accompanied by analytical anti-capitalist commentary - is drawn from the work of George Grosz, Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen, Otto Dix, Käthe Kollwitz, Frans Masereel, John Heartfield and others. While the illustration is largely satirical in tone, pace Grosz, some, such as that by Kollwitz, is pathetic and some of the images, such as the group of African-American workers depicted on page 26, is reportage.

This work is scarce and we can trace only the copy at the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin.

£3,500

ANON. Sport in the Soviet Union. Moscow. Vneshtorgisdat, Seventh Printery [for] Intourist. c.1936.

8vo. (214 x 148 mm). [17 leaves]. Leaf with title and sixteen leaves with monochrome illustration printed in sepia and English text, final leaf with printer’s credit verso. Stapled as issued in original publisher’s printed wrappers with colour lithograph illustrationa and title ‘Sport in USSR’ to front cover, publisher’s credit to rear. A good copy of this scarce photographic propaganda work on Soviet sport.

An extensive survey of Soviet era sport as propaganda, depicting smiling participants and champions in a variety of sporting endeavours.

The sports depicted - aside from various parades of sportsmen in Red Square - include skating, skiing, ice dancing, ice hockey, ski-racing with horses, ski-jumping, athletics, football, tennis, cycling, boxing, weight-lifting, wrestling, canoeing, rowing, parachuting, sailing, diving, water skiing (rather more literal than we would understand it today), motor racing, checkers and chess. The text concludes Everyone interested in sport must visit the USSR before detailing Intourist’s ability to organise a variety of sporting tours.

Several champions and heroes of Russian sport are aslo shown: Granatkina and Tolmachev (the best pair of figure skaters in the USSR), Maria Shamova (long jumper), Tamara Bykova (one of the best light girl athletic champions), S. Znamenski (the best stayer [sic] in the USSR on [sic] the 5000 metres), Sergo Ambartsumjan (a champion weight thrower [sic]), and Dolgushin (Soviet rowing champion).

Sport in the Soviet Union is one of the most important factors in the system of bringing up a new generation, thoroughly developed mentally as well as physically, courageous and cheerful builders of socialism.

(From the text).

This work is scarce and we can trace a single copy, that at the LA84 Foundation in the US.

£650

RODCHENKO, Alexander & Varvara Stepanova. Soviet Aviation. Moscow / Leningrad. State Art Publishers. 1939.

Folio. (394 x 258 mm). [46 unnumbered leaves]. Leaf with publisher’s vignette in red with text ‘USSR / The New York / World’s Fair 1939’, leaf with pictorial title in blue and black, three leaves with tipped-in portraits of Lenin, Stalin and Voroshilov, two leaves with explanatory text recto and verso and 39 leaves with monochrome illustration from photographs in blue with occasional highlighting in red recto and verso, captions throughout in English, final leaf verso with credit; the illustrations are printed in heliogravure.

Original publisher’s grey bevelled cloth boards, front cover with title in yellow and elaborate design in silver and red, title and silver decoration to spine, pictorial endpapers.

An excellent copy of Rodchenko and Stepanova’s visual tour-de-force Soviet Aviation.

One of a number of works of photographic propaganda designed and produced by Alexander Rodchenko and his wife Varvara Stepanova, with this commissioned for the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

Although the imagery throughout is classic in its Soviet idealism, the mise en page is determinedly avant-garde with its use of tinted imagery, framing, vignettes, additional highlighting in red and so on.

The result is a visual masterpiece celebrating the heroism of Soviet aviators and many of the triumphs of Soviet aviation. £3,500

RODCHENKO, Alexander & Varvara Stepanova. The Red Army and Navy. Moscow / Leningrad.

State Art Publishers. (1939).

Folio. (394 x 262 mm). [52 unnumbered leaves]. Leaf with publisher’s vignette in red with text ‘USSR / The New York / World’s Fair 1939’ recto and colour frontispiece verso, leaf with printed title in red and black recto and large ‘USSR’ with photographic vignette verso, leaf with text in gold against a grey background (Article 132 of the Soviet constitution), three leaves with tipped-in portraits of Lenin, Stalin and Voroshilov, three leaves with explanatory text in English recto and verso and 42 leaves with monochrome illustration from photographs in black and white recto and verso including two large fold-out pages, captions throughout in English, occasional text in gold, central spread in red and blue (the oaths of the Red Army and Navy), final leaf verso with credit; the illustrations are printed in heliogravure. Original publisher’s bevelled red rexine, front cover with large Soviet star and title in cream, title in cream to spine, pictorial endpapers.

An excellent copy of Rodchenko and Stepanova’s visual tour-de-force The Red Army and Navy.

One of a number of works of photographic propaganda designed and produced by Alexander Rodchenko and his wife Varvara Stepanova, with this commissioned for the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

Although the imagery throughout is classic in its Soviet idealism, the mise en page is determinedly avant-garde with its use of tinted imagery, framing, vignettes, double-page spreads, text in gold and so on. The propaganda tour-de-force celebrating the heroism of Soviet soldiers and sailors. £3,000

sims reed ltd. 43a duke street st. james’s london sw1y 6dd tel. +44 (0) 20 7930 5566 - fax +44 (0) 20 7925 0825 www.simsreed.com - info@simsreed.com