17. MURUGAKANI (S.). [Lord Krishna playing the flute with which he enchanted the Gopis].
Original calendar art. 68.5 x 61 cm., polychrome gouache, on paper backed card, signed by the artist in the image. N.p. [Sivakasi?], S. Murugakani, n.d., £850
Remains of card mount on head of verso with a number in crayon. Contemporary overpainting and retouching or scratching out, worn and creased edges. Central image bright and crisp.
An Indian example of packaging and branding through images.
Other examples of Murugakani’s (sometimes transcribed as ‘Muruyakani’) very potent imagery were reprinted by the Eden Hashish Centre who also dealt bhang and charas to the hippies of Kathmandu. Britannica notes that: “As a youth, the cowherd Krishna became renowned as a lover, the sound of his flute prompting the gopis (wives and daughters of the cowherds) to leave their homes to dance ecstatically with him in the moonlight. His favourite among them was the beautiful Radha”.
Printed posters of Hindu Gods, and especially , were stuffed into the student backpack, or loaded into the VW camper, along with the Afghan coat, Patchouli oil, new religious movement and harem pants – trophies from the ‘hippy trail’ that hung up in the bedsits and communes of London and Berkeley.
BRITANARCHISTS 18 & 19.
18. [DWYER (Bill “Ubi”)]. ACID SYMPOSIUM Wednesday, 28th April,1971 at 7.30 pm IN THE MAIN CONWAY HALL RED LION SQUARE, WCI. Sponsored by Anarchy magazine [3rd issue, 1971, has LSD as its central subject] and the same evening let us get a HEAD LIBERATION FRONT moving!
Original poster. 21.7 x 31.4 cm., titles in black on newsprint, conservation framed and glazed. London, Published by East London Anarchist Group, Printed by Richard Pugh, £75.00
Very good condition, endemic browning. An institutionally and commercially very rare drug ephemeron with no copies on Worldcat, a copy in the former LSD LIbrary and thus to the Houghton.
The contact for this event was the late Bill “Ubi” Dwyer, the nickname was short for 'ubiquitous', who was the co-organizer of the Windsor Free Festivals in seventies' Britain. In an earlier incarnation as political activist, writer and speaker, he was notorious among Sydney anarchists for taking over their meeting place 'The Cellar' turning it into a mattress filled 'crashpad' and as a venue for dealing LSD. A chaotic scene developed which drew the police and he was arrested, given twelve months in jail and finally deported to England. Thereon he got involved in British anarchism, debating at Speakers' Corner and the Free Festival Scene. Dwyer was a quintessential hippy social-entrepreneur in the same mould as Nicholas Saunders of Neal's Yard, Nicholas Albery of the Republic of Frestonia (see Alan Beam elsewhere in this catalogue) and Phil Russell the anarcho-pacifist organizer of Stonehenge Free Festival who was also known as 'Wally Hope' and 'Phil Free'.
23. THE PALLAS GALLERY. The Epistolary Archive and other papers.
Approximately 100 separate holograph signed and/or typed letters signed and related documents with a small quantity of other supporting archival material, largely mid-twentieth century but spanning c.1942-1973. POA
In very good condition.
A compact but rarefied gathering of correspondence and other business papers for a well connected art publisher that exhibited no works but issued a series of solid books and a few other notable ones such as ‘Sutherland: The Coventry Tapestry: The Genesis of the Great Tapestry in Coventry Cathedral, "Christ in Glory in the Tetramorph"’.
The business was run by the canny Hungarian emigre Dr. Andrew Revai, a scholar and social maven, who often worked with the great art bookshop and publisher Zwemmer.
The cache focusses on the press’s shift from general Christmas card type publishing to one of commissioning of graphic artworks from some of the most respected artists of the epoch. The correspondence includes a meaty, long letter from Stanley Spencer, letters from Anthony Blunt, a card from Chagall,Churchill’s signed agreements, letters from William Russell Flint, a typed letter from Hugh Gaitskell and 3 minute books from when he was chairman, 3 letters from Ivon Hitchens, Augustus John’s signed agreement for a reproduction of a painting, 11 holograph letters from Oskar Kokoschka, a holograph and 3 typed letters from Henry Moore, 15 letters and a few postcards from Ben Nicholson, a pair of letters from Roland Penrose, 7 letters and 2 signed cards from John Piper, twenty examples of largely fulsome correspondence from Graham Sutherland and so on. A detailed list is available on request.
SNIFFING BULLSHIT?
8. [JEŽKOVÉ (Aleš a Jaroslav)]. Sračka Prvni, 1+1, tři a IV, 5, 6, 7, [Bullshit First, 1 + 1, three and IV, 5, 6, 7. All published].
First editions. 8vos., unpaginated; collation includes inside front and back wrappers for first 7 issues, thus: [14pp.], [18pp.], [36pp.] rubber stamped in red throughout, [22pp.], [30pp.], [36pp.] includes a 12mo., 2ll. ‘punkovy weekend’ programme, printed in red, bound in, [46pp.], blank, illustrated throughout in b&w photomontage, facsimile line drawings, hand blocking and typewritten text. Side stapled into the original illustrated limp paper wrappers printed in black on white; except issue 7 in sepia, Xerox?, very largely Czech text. N.p. [Olomouc], n.p. [Bratři Ježkové], 1988–90. SOLD.
Near fine. Very rare in both commerce and institutions with no copies on Worldcat or the Czech and Slovak National libraries. In V.Z.D.O.R. on Bigmag.cz citing publisher as ‘Jaroslav Ježek’.
Not the first Czech punk ‘zine but an interesting and early one that emerged in that most important and interesting period straddling the ‘Velvet Revolution’ (named after The Velvet Underground; a huge influence upon both Czech punks and Dissidents).
Sračka was among the first wave of punk zines in a society at ease with DIY in the form of samizdat’ and the sixties avant garde , hippy generation and Fluxus and Happening artists of the Prague Spring. This ‘neo-samizdat’ serial is a veritable Czech 'Sniffin’ Glue' but with higher production standards, was produced by two enterprising DIY punkers, the ‘Bratři Ježkové’ or Brothers Ježkové. Or, possibly sort of Czech and/or Slovak for the ‘Brothers Urchin’ or ‘Hedgehog’ and therefore akin to Lydon’s Johnny Rotten persona or Rat Scabies perhaps? The Bros are surely depicted in photomontage as two of a trio on the front cover of the second to last volume, a fecal tinted issue, standing either side of another punk squatting to defecate the numerical stool '7’, one has a huge mohican. The first issue appeared in 1988, the next three in the following year and the last four in post-Velvet Revolution.
Articles include the lyrics to One Way System’s “No Ansvers [sic]”, a report on The Damned’s appearance at the 100 Club’s 1976 Punk Rock Festival, anarcho-punk band Conflict, Oi! And the Czech punk and Polish rock scenes for the first issue. 1+1 reports on a handful of festivals and gigs in the Czechoslovakian Socialist Republic and Poland such as ‘Rockfest 88’ including Bratislavan punk pioneers Zona A and Polish rockers Detonator BN. The double issue is stamped throughout with an anti-police informers warning, articles on anarcho punk pioneers CRASS, Skandal and the Dead Kennedys (with the lyrics to Holiday in Cambodia translated into Czech), Plakát je loutka (?), skinheads, Industrial (including Einsturzende Neubaten), Oi! Et al. Five includes a montage advert (?) for Svbodny Slovo the cult Czech hardcore group, an article on anarchism and many more endogamous reports on the scene. Six includes Belgian political grindcore group Agathocles, Peter and The Test Tube Babies and much anarchist politics. 7, the sepia issue, has a spread of an anarchist punk march for democracy, articles on vegetarianism and is again much more political as is the final issue.
Existing as a punk in any society can be hard but especially so in the Communist police state riddled with spies, informers, police brutality, Soviet psychiatry and ‘little Stalins’ of all kinds. These zines document a largely untold story of dissidence and political and stylistic dissent and nonconformity that has been overshadowed by the Plastic People of Universe and Havel’s sort of Zappa inspired ‘freak power’.
9. KLEIN (Yves), PIENE (Otto) (Text). [Einladung zur Ausstellung 'Peintures De Feu' von Yves Klein am Mittwoch, dem April 1964, 18 Uhr in der Galerie Schmela, Düsseldorf, Hunsrückenstr,...].
Original gallery invitation. Oblong 8vo., 3 illustrations, one in colour, two b&w, text in black , facsimile holograph signature on upper portion; white card folded twice into six panels, three in matt and the others glossy, German text. N.p. [Galerie Schmela], 1963, £75.00
Endemic, even, light yellowing and slight creasing. Very rare, with possibly only two copies on Worldcat.
Klein’s first German show of his monochrome blue paintings was also at Galerie Schmela in the Altstadt, at what is now the Drei Amigos bar. This exhibition of his fire painting was also arguably as important as his first. The spare design depicts one of Klein’s paintings in colour and a reproduction of a holograph letter from the artist and another close-up of a collage letter to Alfred Schmela with a photoportrait obscured by white paint.
10. BEUYS (Joseph). Joseph Beuys. Stripes From The House of The Shaman, Words Which Can Hear 13 August to 10 September 1980.
Original private view invitation card. Small 8vo., bifolium, colour illustration, a portrait of Beuys by Andy Warhol, white card. N.p. [London], n.p. [Anthony D’Offay], 1980. £15.00
Slightly worn and very lightly yellowed. Rare, with no copies on Worldcat.
An important show for the Düsseldorf Tendency in GB.
11. ALGREN (Nelson). A Walk on The Wild Side.
Fourth edition. 8vo., half-title, title, pp-5-272, perfect bound into the original illustrated wrapper; with a gouache on the upper portion and a small b&w authorial portrait on the lower portion accompanied by two Press puffs from John Davenport and Peter Green, old ownership signature in Biro from 1992 on the front free endpaper. London, The Harborough Publishing Co. Ltd, Ace Books, H258, 1960. £10.00
Endemic browning of text, wrappers a trifle worn though bright. Not in Bruccoli though he identifies it in an Addenda as the third edition. Two copies or one each of of two variant copies in Kent State.
Simultaneous to this edition is another with a wrapper based on the film with Frank Sinatra, unlike this one depicting a streetwalker.
12. EWING (Douglas C.) & BATES (Craig), BRASSER (Ted J.) (Essays). Pleasing The Spirits. A Catalogue of A Collection of American Indian Art.
First edition. 4to., endpaper, half-title, title, [4pp.], pp-9-40, map, 26 coloured plate pages with captions, 479 b&w photographs with captions, in the original brown cloth, gilt titles on spine, glossy jacket; titles in black and red, one colour photograph on each portion. New York, Ghylen Press, 1982. £30.00
Crisp, clean copy.
Compendious catalogue of great depth and connoisseurship includes Ghost Dance shirts, pipes, medicine and fetish bags, playing cards and other ceremonial and everyday objects.
13. STRANGE (Hugh) (Edited by). The Parabola Garden News Sheet THE PLOT Issue 1 August 2011 & Issue 2 May 2012 [All published].
First editions. Folios, 2 leaves’ [1p.], [2pp.], illustrated with line drawings and monochrome photos, printed on both recto and verso, punch hole on top left for loose leaf binding and hook hanging, on recycled beer label paper. N.p. [Hadspen House], Published by The Hadspen Plot Holders, 2011-2012. £10.00
Folded roughly a bit creased, clean copies. Very rare in both commerce and institutions with no copies on Worldcat.
The life of a walled garden after an arguably eccentric, or perhaps experimental or generous,landowner gave it over to the people of Bruton, Somerset and thereabouts (and his Mum) to grow food and flowers.
PACKAGING HISTORY AND BRANDING 14-17
14. CASCALES LORENTE (José). Rolling Paper. Graphics on Cigarette Rolling Paper.
First Spanish edition published in the same year as the UK edition with a variant title. Small 4to., [1p.], pp-5-285, profusely illustrated throughout with captioned photos of rolling papers and booklets, on cream paper, book block and yellow paper upper board perfect bound with black tape and onlaid into a decorative folding paper covered board portfolio in imitation of a rolling paper booklet. Barcelona, Index Books, 2007. £20.00
Clean, crisp copy.
Introductory essay on origins and history by Lorente, the book is described as a “visual journey”.
15. RAY [Peter C.]. [Untitled, unfinished gouache and pencil sketch for a design on an industrial theme].
Original graphic.27.5 x 22.6 cm., signed and dated on the image in black gouache, annotations in pencil on verso and a few words in pen painted over on recto, on a sheet of off-white paper casually detached from a sketchbook, lower edge folded under. . N.p., published?, Ray, 1930, SOLD.
Crisp, clear image.
Ray was a prominent British graphic designer, he worked for Shelf Appeal, designing their December 1938 photocollage cover among other jobs, and later for the Ministry of Information, he also designed ‘Health’ for the 1951 Festival of Britain. The image depicts a gear wheel with teeth, two pairs of pliers and wire construction in front of a rising sun.
16. [KAUFFER (Edward McKnight) (Attributed to). Shelf APPEAL TWO SHILLINGS DECEMBER 1938.
Original cover/poster design. 30.5 X 23 cm. image, 56 x 38 cm to paper edge, abstract design and titles outlined in pencil and in coloured gouache on black construction paper, probably unpublished, unsigned. N.p., n.d., 1938. £450.00
The provenance is a trifle shaky relying on this cataloguer’s memory from over a decade ago, when this was acquired, that this beautiful drawing came from a portfolio of similars labelled “Kauffer”.
Image crisp and clean, edges of paper with light wear and nicks. The cover for December 1938’s issue of the pioneering and influential packaging arts and industry magazine was by Peter Ray (see elsewhere in this list). Other cover artists and graphic designers who worked for Shelf Appeal, and often appeared in it, included Ashley, G.A. Morris, Lazlo Moholy Nagy, Tom Eckersley. Shelf Appeal was focused on a new class of professionals who designed the increasing amounts of promo and packaging material and forged ‘brands’, via eidetics and typography, to market and sell stuff to consumers.
QUAKING, VISIONS AND RAPPINGS IN THE USA 1-4.
These four Quaker manuscript items are from a very large archive of an American family called Harper. The archive was almost entirely Americana and was disposed of literally leaf by leaf on Ebay ten or more years ago. Diaries, letters and other papers covered the American West, whaling, gold mining, the American Civil War and, as here, Quaker life and thought in early nineteenth century Massachusetts and Maryland. I fed my obsession with American Quaker thought by purchasing what I could at the time and ‘..walked on by’ the rest after contacting the vendor and offering to buy it en bloc and trying to rope some big US dealers in. These writings are interesting because they show how an important Nonconformist and religious movement was organised. They give a taste of how ideas, events, lore, news and printed texts circulated in an evangelical period before massive historical changes transformed American society utterly. The core beliefs of the Quakers, in the form of equality of race, came to the forefront in the bloodiest of ways in the form of Civil War when South and North fought a long, brutal conflict over the morality and legality of slavery.
#22 decoupage decoration on upper cover.
19. RADCLIFFE (Charles) & GRAY (Christopher) (Editors & contributors) PAZ∫ (“Artwork and titling”) et al. Heatwave Number 2.
First edition. 4to.,19pp.,[1p.], pp-21-36, illustrated throughout with line drawings, stab stapled into the original limp red paper wrappers, stylized titles in black on upper portion and a detourned cartoon on the lower portion by Paz who also supplied the artwork, cartoons and “special effects” mimeographed. London, Heatwave, October 1966. £500.00
Crisp, clean copy slight (endemic) fading on the spine. A beautiful example that looks as if it has not been removed off the shelf it was put on a half century ago. Scarce.
The second of two only issues of this strange outgrowth of proto-punk, British Situationism and the traditional ‘Wobbly’ socialist scene in Chicago that was centred around the serial ‘Rebel Worker’.The countercultural portion of the booktrade suggests that Radcliffe had published and distributed the sixth issue of the magazine in London and then (as he writes in the opening statement) he moved on to creating and marketing Heatwave.
The editorial, illustrated with a skull and crossbones asserts that “We are living through the break-up of an entire civilisation..” . An important contribution to Situ history is surely the brief review of Gray and Vissac’s translation of Raoul Vaneigem’s ‘Banalités de Base’ as ‘Totality for Kids’. Other articles include two on “contemporary urbanism” the first entitled “Lefrak City The Bureaucratic Utopia of Samuel J. Lefrak” and an illustrated translation of Kotanyi and Vaneigem’s ‘Unitary Urbanism’ taken from Internationale Situationniste 6.
Other articles include ‘The Provo Riots’, Gray’s commentary on Dada and Surrealist texts, a cartoon by Norrie MaClue, ‘The Almost Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp’ by Vel Cameron, Franklin Rosemont’s ‘Landscape With Moveable Parts’ and Rebel Worker and Resurgence Youth Movement oriented stuff.
#22 a samizdat type book of palmistry from the Soviet era.
“The mysterious phenomena calld the Spiritual rappings made its appearance in our family the winter of 1854. We had numerous singular communications”.
1. ANDERSON (H)] (Engraver). [The Art of Penmanship Written and Designed For The Use of Schools and Private Persons].
Original commonplace book. Small 4to., unpaginated; [36pp,] filled in in a variety of holograph cursives in havana and other inks and pencil; the entries overflowing onto wrapper, some entries retroactively added within a decade or so. Roughly hand sewn into the appropriated printed, mustard yellow stiff paper wrapper detached from Anderson’s book; with engraved titles and eight lines of verse and two eagle ornaments on the upper portion and two alphabetic specimens on the lower portion in a calligraphic style, within an early nineteenth century stiff blue paper jacket. Cadiz, Ohio H.Anderson, 1833 [for the inner wrapper], n.d., N.p. [Largely Centerville Massachusetts?], April 4 1841 - 1871. £400.00
Worn with loss on corners, browned, one leaf detached. A beautiful folkish object. The commonplace book is filled in by, presumably, family hands. The entries were initially chronological but all page space has been used thereafter and in a few cases filled with recollections and observations from hindsight, with some before our assumed start date of 1841. Entries include pastoral and weather notes, a report of a comet and another of a human oddity as well as significant life-events such as family visits, talks by travelling preachers and political, philosophical and spiritual and religious life and habits.
The first entry is by Eli Griffiths, the paterfamilias?, who has signed the book in pencil opposite, wherein he lays out the raison d’etre of the book, thus:
“This Book is intended for our instruction in the committing to paper of our common thoughts - as well as for the transcribing of pieces & paragraphs... By making it a duty to commit to paper our ideas” and to pass down the “will of the Creator” and inspire “fortitude” in the face of death…”.
Morbidity was visited early and often in the company of mortality in the days before penicillin, with harsh cold or wet winters, or freak weather causing havoc and noted in laconic entries such as:
“A very destructive freeze on the night of the 4th of June 1859 we had promising prospects but they were very much blighted”.
In at least two places, there are deeply superstitious entries noting:
“The mysterious phenomena calld the Spiritual rappings made its appearance in our family the winter of 1854. We had numerous singular communications”.
Nature’s unpredictability frequently tipped the very oldest and youngest over into the ‘spirit world’ first, indeed, this entry comes just after “James Bakers little daughter was buried on the 3rd”.
A series of hoax seances by the Fox sisters in 1849-50 inspired the the Quakers and blended with their anti-Abolitionism, Temperance and so on to create a heady messianic brew. The other major ‘spirit’ entry makes a near explicit reference to the Fox’s first recorded public appearance at the Corinthian Hall, Rochester and their public seances the following year, thus:
“The latter part of 1849 and in 1850 much excitement was manifest in many places concerning mysterious sounds or knocking heard in Rochester New York where was said to be communications of spirits it is supposed by some that they visit the earth and converse with mortals by means of wrappings by which they can spell out their words thro means of the alphabet”.
As Quakers, they found succour in books passed around the community, travelling speakers and preachers and the lessons learned from the notes or ‘epistles’ of their regular meetings. Entries from these activities include digressions on the imminent new spiritual world of Christ’s coming and judgement, thoughts on equality, Abolitionism and extracts from William Law (so influential upon William Wilberforce), John Scott and others. A fascinating taste of American social and religious history, weather patterns and spiritual beliefs.
Commonplace books are not rare, but they are rarely as interesting as this one with a wrapper scavenged from a, now scarce, calligraphy book (from whence the handwriting was presumably gleaned) that was sewn up so roughly and beautifully with catgut.
“...rejoice in the assurance that the cause of the oppressed Africans is gaining increased interest in the minds of many friends…”
2. DURFEE (Mary B.) (Clerk). Copy of Genesee Epistle For Westland Preparative Meeting. [From Genesee Yearly Meeting opened at Farmington and held by adjournments from the 9th of the 6th mo to the 13th of the same inclusive, 1834.
Original copyletter. Small foolscap, [3pp.], in dark havana ink in a calligraphic hand, on a bifolium, old horizontal and vertical folds. Farmington, [New York], c. 1834. £200.00
Endemic light browning, light foxing, show through of ink, worn on old folds, a few small holes.
The term ‘epistle’ was taken from the Bible’s apostolic letters to Christian groups and individuals by the Quakers and was used perhaps in the same way that one might use ‘advisory’. For the Quakers, it was perhaps a way of getting a consensus on the many civil and human rights campaigns that the Religious Society of Friends, motivated by conscience, have always participated in.
This epistle is particularly interesting because it records a yearly coming together of women who “...rejoice in the assurance that the cause of the oppressed Africans is gaining increased interest in the minds of many friends… urging others to mouth their beliefs and “judge righteously and plead the cause of the poor & needy..”.
The letter was copied from an epistle written in the famous Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse, home of the Genesee Yearly Meeting of Friends and the catalyst for many a Civil Rights cause including the Underground Railroad and Women’s rights. The document was then sent to the Westland Preparative Meeting (a purely secular gathering) of Westland Ohio. The Maryland branch of the family were the ‘Griffiths’ of Maryland/Massachusetts and some of them established a community in Ohio, they visited one another frequently as is demonstrated in the commonplace book included as item 1 in this short list.
3. [ANONYMOUS]. [6th mo. 19th 1806. Respectful Friends I now attempt to answer Thy request on the Origin of moral evil in the human mind…].
Original epistle or fair copy. Foolscap, [4pp.], bifolium, laid paper, bold hand in havana ink. N.p. [Maryland/Massachusetts], unpublished?, 1806. £75.00
Endemic, even browning, edgeworn; ragged edges, corners and top edge with slight loss, torn where folded and a few tears elsewhere.
A Quaker Christian’s elegantly written and detailed examination of the problem of evil “in the human mind”, with much talk of Satan. The author takes a sort of Lockean view that the Serpent was presented to Eve as an object of her senses and that mind is a piece of “white paper on which there is no characters” that is imprinted on by the external world for good or bad. A fascinating look into New World philosophical theology at the turn of the century.
AN ANTEBELLUM VISIONARY PROPHET.
“...the blood of Africa”
4. [HICKS (Elias), WILSON (E), [HOAG (Joseph)]. A Farewell Address to Elias Hicks/Elias Hicks/A Vision of Joseph Hoag.
2 probably original manuscripts and a fair copy. Foolscap, unpaginated; [5.5pp.] on 4ll. of ruled ledger paper, in purple ink, contemporaneously hand stitched in ‘criss-cross’. N.p., [Maryland/Massachusetts], n.d., after 1828. £350.00
Surely quite scarce fair copy of an important antebellum religious text in the struggle against slavery.
Endemic light browning, first leaf faded from very old water exposure but readable almost in entirety.
Hicks and Hoag were controversial figures in American Quaker history, the former preached away from church doctrine and Bible looking to personal choice for good and evil. Hoag effectively predicted the Civil War of The United States through his recounting of a visionary experience he had in 1803. His account of this experience is included here, he describes a field in 1803 where the sun was obscured by a mist and the voice of God spoke to him and revealed the corruption of all religious denominations and politics by Old World values and an an eventual slide into war with the Southern States because of the slave trade of “..their iniquities and the blood of Africa”.
TWO RARE BINDINGS FROM THE HOXTON MALE REFUGE MADE FOR A DEFENSTRATED CLERK 5 & 6.
5. GOLDSMITH (Oliver). Essays.Collecta Revirescunt.
First nineteenth century edition? 12mo., endpaper, blank, engraved frontispiece, title with woodcut vignette, [1p.], iv-vi, [1p.], pp-9-143, [1p.] publishers’ catalogue, in contemporary half-calf, marbled paper covered boards, spine in seven panels double gilt fillets, with titles, a blindstamped floral device and “W.V. 1826” in three of them, all edges speckled red. Shaped binder’s ticket on inside front pastedown printed in black on green within a border. A signed and inscribed large armorial bookplate, has been cut in half on the horizontal and pasted across the front pastedown and front free endpaper. London, printed for T. Wills by C. Whittingham, Sold by H.D. Symonds, 1803. £375.00
Corners worn, boards a trifle rubbed, headcaps and joints worn.
The book is surprisingly rare with no copy in the British Library and only one on Worldcat and that in the USA. An even rarer institutional binding, the ticket reads “Bound by The Inmates of The Male Refuge Hoxton” circa 1810. Not in Scott. Item 197, Maggs catalogue 1212 which notes that “Few other bindings by the inmates of the Hoxton Male Refuge have been recorded” except for a six volume set of Robinson’s Works in another house catalogue which in turn appeared in Ramsden’s London Booksellers. This cataloguer has noticed say two more at regional auction houses in the last ten years or so.
Provenance: William Vines, tenured Clerk to both the Leathersellers’ and Brewers’ Company 1828 -1848; when he auto-defenestrated himself from the fourth floor of Leathersellers’ Hall, Saint Helen’s Place, London. His initials dated 1826 on the spine and the signed and dated inscription in a good hand in dark ink on the lower half of the bookplate, trimmed slightly and with a paraph, reading:
“Wm. Vines Brewers Hall & Leathersellers Hall London 1831”.
A gatherum of the irish writer Goldsmith's works from many and various zines, one possibly not by him, revirescunt with a few collected additions from the 1765 first edition [s]. The Hoxton Male Refuge was one of a number of, to this cataloguer’s mind, semi-carceral institutions that provided a rather grim ‘safety net’ for London’s poor in the Victorian era and that were seen at the time as undermining the job security and quality control of The City’s leather tradesmen (ironic then a Leathersellers’ Company Clerk should commission them).
6. THOMSON (James). The Seasons.
12mo., endpaper, blank, engraved frontispiece and title, [i], ii-xiv, section title, [1p.], pp-16-168, in contemporary half-calf, marbled paper covered boards, spine in seven panels double gilt fillets, with titles and “W.V. 1826” in two of them and blindstamped thistles in three others, all edges speckled red. Shaped binder’s ticket on inside front pastedown printed in black on pink within a border. A signed and inscribed large armorial bookplate, has been cut in half on the horizontal and pasted across the front pastedown and front free endpaper. Ownership signatures on the title and the first page, the first in blue ink on the vertical, the other in sepia ink, dated 1811, trimmed a little by the binder. London, Wm. Suttaby & B. Crosby & Co…. and C. Corrall, 1806. £375.00
Corners worn, boards a trifle rubbed, headcaps and joints worn, front board starting.
This edition is surprisingly rare with apparently no copy in the British Library. An even rarer institutional binding, the ticket, on the scarcer variant pink paper, reads “Bound by The Inmates of The Male Refuge Hoxton” circa 1810. Item 198, Maggs catalogue 1212.
Provenance: William Vines, signed by him in two places, his initials dated 1826 on the spine and the signed and dated inscription in a good hand in dark ink on the lower half of the bookplate, trimmed slightly and with a paraph, reading:
“Wm. Vines Brewers Hall & Leathersellers Hall London 1831”.
THE PROPHET ENTRAINED
7. [TROTSKY (Leon) nom de guerre of BRONSTEIN (Lev Davidovich)], MARKOV (Sergei Dmitrievich Markov). ALS to Leon Trotsky annotated, marked up and signed by the recipient].
Original letter. A4., Il., [2pp.], circa 30 lines, Russian cursive, in red ink, signed and annotated on first page and underlined on the second with blue marking up crayon, on thin white official letterhead, left edge with the remains of a stub, rubberstamped, various reference numbers and/or archival numbers in crayon and pencil, 2 August 1920. £475.00
Endemic, light, even yellowing, 9 opening sentences with the first letter obscured by stub, the remains of the stub ragged from a crude excision from an official archival binder?.
The Bolshevik revolutionary Markov was on the Board of the People's Commissariat for Railways; in 1919 he ascended to Deputy People's Commissar for Railways and by 1920, when this letter was written, he was Superintendent of the Vladikavkaz Railway and a member of the Caucasian Front’s Revolutionary Military Council ( of which Trotsky was Chairman). The letter is addressed to “Lev Davidovich” seemingly on the “Predrevoyensoviet” or ‘Train of the Chairman of The Revolutionary Military’, his armoured war from which he conducted the Civil War. It is a report on measures to create regular, long-distance transportation, many of which were unsuccessful. Trotsky has underlined one section on the second page and recommended on the head of the first page to “Send the letter to attention of Central Command. Trotsky”.
*Thanks to Dr Penka for his help with this, all mistakes are of course mine.
Cyberlist 2.
The 23 items here are very largely from my own 'accidental' collection and some other stuff that I have recently acquired. If you want to buy anything email [email protected] or text/ring +41(0)7931309095. Postage, packing and insurance is extra and charged at cost. Payment by cheque, cash or bank transfer by prior arrangement.
SPIRITUALISM - VISIONS - HEATWAVE - HEAD LIBERATION FRONT - THE PALLAS PRESS - BRANDS AND PACKAGING - KRISHNA - LYNDA BENGLIS - TROTSKY - CZECH PUNK - INMATE BINDINGS - HANDMADE BOOKS FROM THE SOVIET NEW AGE.
THE SOVIET NEW AGE 21-22
21. [ANONYMOUS]. СОННИК [Sonnik/Book of Dream Interpretations or Dreambook].
Profusely illustrated. Original dreambook. 8vo.,illustrated title, pp-17-100pp., plus numerous plates of illustrations. The mimeographed [?] text and tipped in captioned illustration [s] from books and magazines arranged recto verso, another 22ll. sporadically and partly filled in with clippings and wordlists with several blank, 9ll. blanks, all tipped in, corrected throughout in both pen and pencil, on stiff white paper; in the original black corduroy covered boards, in Cyrillic, unpublished?. N.p. [Yaroslavl or nearby], n.d., c. 1978. £775.00
In very good condition, endemic browning of inserted texts and illustrations, a few of the post-textual supplementary leaves excised leaving stubs, several loose illustrations with a few missing, glue browned. We have attributed the date to a, perhaps coincidental, Russian language ‘tamizdat’ publication issued in 1977 by the Washington based VK press entitled, loosely in English as ‘Dream Interpretation, The Horoscope, Divination’. A unique expanded text.
Bolshevism was supposed to have banished private life and superstition, but, that was not the case for many Soviet citizens who retained their pre-revolutionary ‘Russian soul’. For some Soviet citizens at least, their lives were determined by even more esoteric forces than Marxist historical materialism and a deeper meaning could be discerned from the mystical symbolism of dreams, as this weird DIY ‘reprint’ of oneiric texts demonstrates. It contains at least one retyped section of an encyclopedia and perhaps other books that is in turn in Grangerised with much material from magazines, newspapers and books illustrating the encyclopedia entries. There was a long and rich tradition of Dreambooks in Czarist Russia with numerous booklets with gaudy covers but as the texts moved towards predicting the future, the Revolution probably killed them off. Faith Wigzel in ‘Reading Russian Fortunes: Print Culture, Gender and Divination in Russia’ (1998) notes that Dreambooks also appeared in indexes of banned books “..from the earliest of times..” (p-17) “..with the first known albeit incomplete manuscript dream-book dated to about 1700..” (p-19 ibid)
The opening pages include a kind of frontispiece of 5 numbered ‘beds for display’, ‘lit de parade’ in French, of the type that were for show in grand Russian houses but not for actual sleeping. The theme continues with another four or so daybeds a few pages further on in the book. The rest of the book is like a sort of folk Jungian publication with lonely houses, a lump of gold, clippings from emblem books and compendia of religious symbols as well as many Chagall style and lubok clippings from children’s illustrated books and art tomes.
22. [ANONYMOUS/VARIOUS AUTHORS]. Хиромантія [Hiromantiya/Chiromancy].
Profusely illustrated. Original compendium of private, pre-revolutionary and tamizdat texts?, extra illustrated. 8vo., frontispiece, 80ll., no meta pagination, scraps, clippings, original b&w photographs of illustrated book pages within borders ruled in blue Biro, Biro drawings, mimeographed texts in black and red and Xeroxed? texts tipped in, stiff white paper, in the original black cloth covered cloth illustrated in decoupage with a pair of manicured hands with jewelled rings on the upper portion, text corrected throughout in pen. N.p. [Yaroslavl or nearby], [Partly unpublished?], n.d. c. 1970s. £775.00
A few chipped fingers on the cover decoupage, very good text. Unique.
Possibly includes a section from the very rare, anonymous, pre-revolutionary book ‘Palmistry or Secrets of The Hands’ (loosely translated from the Russian by this cataloguer) published in Russia in 1914.
A strange book full of naive original drawings of hands and reproductions from books on palm divination that is a visual folkish tour-de-force. The elaborate lengths that the compiler has gone to in creating this book-object using a camera, mimeograph stencils, original drawings and perhaps some kind of cyclostyle machine is incredible. It demonstrates very practically that Xerox machines were kept under lock and key in Soviet Russia.
“In true Hustler style, she stood there defiantly, dressed in body grease, shades, a foot-long dildo held at attention, and nothing else. It was powerful, it was vulgar, and it made its point: a penis and defiant stance to match was still the primary formula for success in the New York art world” .
20. [BENGLIS (Lynda)]. Artforum.
Original T-shirt. 76 x 68.58 cm., screenprinted in colour, titles in black, airbrushed additions in coloured paints, white cotton Fruit of The Loom shirt, framed and glazed in a custom ‘T’ shaped gilded frame and laid on to green baize, contemporaneously signed and dated by the artist on the lower right. N.p. [New York/Madison?], n.p. [The artist, printed by Bill Weege at The Jones Road Print Shop], n.d., 1974. £10, 000.00
Near fine, unexamined out of frame. Very rare and desirable and especially so signed. We have read notices within the art trade stating that this frame was made by Benglis.
Provenance: Paula Cooper, New York thence to The Collection of Marvin & Florence Gerstin.
An early example of ‘crowdfunding’ or ‘kickstarting’ an art publication, Benglis is said to have produced the shirts to pay for an artistic intervention in cahoots with her gallery and in the form of a doublespread ’ advertisement’ in Artforum, the dominant contemporary art organ of the day. She created a sensation within both the readership and editorial board. Semmel et al sum up the intervention in a nutshell
“In a decade which saw many male artists revealing themselves in this fashion, however, Benglis’s nudity was the least part of the controversy, albeit an essential part of her statement. In true Hustler style, she stood there defiantly, dressed in body grease, shades, a foot-long dildo held at attention, and nothing else. It was powerful, it was vulgar, and it made its point: a penis and defiant stance to match was still the primary formula for success in the New York art world” (p26- - Musing about the Muse in Feminist Studies , Vol. 9, No. 1, 1983).
In an interview with Amy Newman for Challenging Art: Artforum 1962-1974, Benglis recounted the events that led to the doubledildo portrait. She recalled that senior editor Robert Pincus Witten wanted to do an article on her which led her to formulate the idea of an artwork by her ‘within’ Artforum itself. Benglis had already approached Artforum ‘s publisher Charles Cowles and declared that she wanted to be a ’centrefold’ and "..Charlie smiled and blushed . Then he showed me an Artforum T-shirt and I took the T-shirt and I remember that I thought I’d like to do a T-shirt too. Before, the inception of the article (p-390).
She began to discuss the centrefold idea with editor in chief John Coplans and presented him with three images, one of which was “.something really strong” (op. cit.) with the rationale that, after feedback from a visitor to her gallery, she didn‘t want to look like a victim. Coplans noted that she was insistent that her dildo image should appear in Pincus Witten’s article after Artforum published Robert Morris’s poster of him as a “..modern he-man..” (p-391 ibid). Her request was denied and Coplans suggested an ad “..and her gallery agrees..” (op. cit.) She refused to have her illustrations in the article itself and even for the cover image and opted instead for the advert with the stronger image she wanted in the right context. Consequently, the editors, according to Benglis, “..doubled the price or they tripled the price..” (p-392 ibid) from $1500. Coplans said that Cowles was worried what his mother would think and then the printer refused to run it but he appealed to his sentiments as a fellow old soldier and he ran his presses (p-393-393 ibid).
The editors wrote a strident letter of complaint, Coplans didn’t publish it, and another ironic one from Peter Plagens, thus:
“Imagine my perplexity when my nine-year-old son, who’d met this ”artist“ only weeks before here in our home, asked me if that dildo was really made of some Japanese plastic which would further depress our domestic styren industry” (note 127, p-525, ibid).
The ad in effect, provoked an editorial crisis with resignations and a public letter to the New York Times and thereafter divided Artforum factionally and did indeed upset Cowles’ mother.
Four decades later, Benglis told Louisa Buck in an interview entitled Lynda Benglis: going with the flow for The Art Newspaper, issue 266, 2015 “I wish I still had that body now!” and that she “...knew it was a provocation. I knew it would be big, in my gut I knew that, but I had to do it and I knew it would be challenging. It was important for me to present the sexuality of both a man and a woman together symbolically”.
Carl Williams Rare Books
