CARROLL, Lewis LAURENCIN, Marie BLACK SUN PRESS Alice in Wonderland 1930
One of Black Sun's Finest EffortsThe Harry F. Marks CopyCustom Bound by Whitman BennettCARROLL, Lewis. LAURENCIN, Marie, illustrator. BLACK SUN PRESS. Alice in Wonderland. Illustrated with six coloured lithographs by Marie Laurencin. Paris: The Black Sun Press, 1930. One of 350 numbered copies for America on Rives paper, this being copy sixty-three. Oblong quarto. [6, blank] [8], 114, [2, blank], [1, colophon], [7, blank] pp. Six magnificent colored lithographs by Laurencin, the lithographs executed by Desjobert of Paris, with tissue guards. Printed for and under the direction of Caresse Crosby by Lescaret.Stylishly bound ca. 1930 by Whitman Bennett of New York for Harry F. Marks (stamp-signed) in Art-Deco inspired three-quarter red morocco over floral patterned paper boards. Gilt lettered and ornamented spine. Gilt rules and rabbit vignette to upper board with gilt-outlined red morocco blades extending diagonally from the tips and converging at center. Top edge gilt. Matching morocco edged slip case. A fine copy of a volume generally found with moderate to heavy foxing and thus scarce.We have seen similarly bound copies but they differ from this copy thus: No stamped signature "Bound by Whitman Bennett for Harry F. Marks;" the rabbit vignette is not entirely gilt; and the paper used to decorate the boards is of a different pattern.A major association copy, that of renowned New York City bookman Harry F. Marks, Black Sun Press' distributor in America, and custom bound for him by Whitman Bennett. One of Harry and Caresse Crosby's Black Sun Press' "finest efforts, justifiably renowned," (Heritage Books, Catalogue 182, 1991) published in the year following Harry Crosby's notorious suicide. " I bought a vast number of Black Sun Press imprints [from] Harry Marks Harry Marks apparently was the contact of Edward Titus and Caresse Crosby here" (New York City Bookshops in the 1930s and 1940s: The Recollections of Walter Goldwater" [interview], DLB Yearbook, 1993, pp. 139-172.) "Soon enough the [Black Sun] press attracted the attention of booksellers from London and New York, especially Harry Marks Marks recalled finding his way to the [press'] shop at 2 rue Cardinale on a spring day and realizing 'at a glance that there was something of vital importance to lovers of fine books.' In his preface to a catalogue describing the Black Sun Press and its books [privately printed, 1930], which he came to distribute in America, Marks described the confusion of the shop and the self-informed determination of the Crosbys: ' I noticed the beautiful clarity of the type, the perfect spacing, the wide, elegant margins then and there I made arrangements to handle the output of the Black Sun Press in America' " (Wolff, Black Sun: The Brief Transit and Violent Eclipse of Harry Crosby, pp. 175-176)."The Black Sun Press produced sumptuous volumes in limited editions that were expensive to produce, expensive to buy, and as much works of art in themselves as they were vehicles for the artistry of others" (Pearson, Obelisk: A History of Jack Kahane and the Obelisk Press, p. 3).Bennett Book Studios of New York City was established in the late 1920s by bookman and binder Whitman Bennett (1883-1968); the business involved the selling of rare books as well as the operation of a fine bindery. Bennett began as a film director and producer. "'Speed and efficiency' was the slogan of the Whitman Bennett Studios, a production company founded in 1920 on the ruins of the erstwhile Triangle corporation. Bennett himself was a well-known dealer in rare books and an author of some note [A Practical Guide to American 19th Century Color-Plate Books; A Practical Guide to American Book Collecting]. In 1921, Bennett made an agreement with First National to produce a series of melodramas starring Lionel Barrymore, the most notable of which was a 1921 version of the ancient crook melodrama Jim the Penman. Also featuring Barrymore's wife, Doris Rankin, Jim the Penman was directed by Kenneth Webb, while Bennett himself would helm such films as Wife Against Wife (1921), starring Pauline Starke; Virtuous Liars (1924), featuring aging matinee idol Maurice Costello; and Back to Life (1925), a vehicle for popular ingenue Patsy Ruth Miller. The latter proved one of Bennett's final contributions to screen history" (Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide)."Among [the] artists who added honors to The Black Sun Press were Max Ernst, Augustus John, Jean Cocteau, Marie Laurencin, [et al]" (Caresse Crosby, How It Began in Minkoff, A Bibliography of The Black Sun Press, p. [xiv])."Marie Laurencin (1883-1956) was a French painter, stage designer and illustrator. After studying porcelain painting at the SŠvres factory (1901) and drawing in Paris under the French flower painter Madelaine Lemaire (1845 1928), in 1903 4 she studied at the Acad‚mie Humbert in Paris, where she met Georges Braque and Francis Picabia. In 1907 she first exhibited paintings at the Salon des Ind‚pendants, met Picasso at Clovis Sagot s gallery and through Picasso was introduced to the poet Guillaume Apollinaire. Laurencin and Apollinaire were soon on intimate terms, their relationship lasting until 1912. She illustrated several books, including a 1930 edition of˙Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Her stage designs included scenery for the Ballets Russes (1924) and the Comedie Francaise (1928)" (http://www.aliceinwonderlandbooks.com/page_373408.html)Minkoff A34. Monod 2304.
$US3500
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