Nothing beats true Surrealism !
A century of materialism has failed to constrain the profound modernity of Surrealism, as each works of art and literature provoke a revolution in the senses and consciousness.
While some today declare the death of Surrealism,
the fact remains that its corpse is exquisite...
First edition, one of 355 numbered copies on wove paper, the only issue with 25 copies on Holland paper.
A pleasant copy.
First edition, one of 15 copies numbered and justified by Tristan Tzara, the only large paper copies.
Inscribed, dated, and signed by Tristan Tzara at head of first page of text.
One small trace of lateral folding to lower cover.
A good and rare copy.
First edition of the French translation, for which no deluxe paper copies are mentioned.
Spine wrinkled, as often.
Illustrated.
Inscribed and signed by Man Ray to Claude Nardin.
First edition, one of 90 numbered copies on vellum, ours one of the few hors commerce copies, the only issue after 20 copies on orange paper.
Spine slightly sunned as usual, with a small tear to head of spine; a fine copy.
Illustrated with a frontispiece by Max Ernst.
Whimsical inscription on a presentation copy to Surrealist painter Yves Tanguy: "in memory of a past not unlike a Henri III sideboard. Lély." (A monsieur Yves Tanguy en souvenir d'un passé pareil à un buffet Henri III)
First edition, one of 35 numbered copies on vélin bleu, most limited deluxe issue (tirage de tête).
Spine and boards marginally faded as usual, otherwise a handsome copy.
Illustrated with 8 black-and-white photolithographs after collages by Max Ernst.
A rare copy of this collection of surrealist tales by Leonora Carrington, which "recall, through their very 'English' humour, certain adventures of Alice in Wonderland, blended with a more macabre imagination that at times brings to mind the cruel irony of Maldoror" (Susan Rubin Suleiman).
First edition, one of 535 numbered copies on Navarre laid paper, the only issue together with 10 copies on Japan paper.
Illustrated with a portrait of the author as frontispiece by Man Ray.
A fine copy despite a small, minor tear at the head of the spine.
Signed autograph inscription by Jacques Baron: " à Jeanne, Pierre et Jacques et X Collet. De tout coeur. Vraiment. Jacques."
First edition, illustrated with an original etching as frontispiece and four hors-texte drawings by Henri Laurens, one of 324 numbered copies on Vélin du Marais.
Title page lightly toned, otherwise a pleasing copy.
Signed in pencil by Tristan Tzara and Henri Laurens beneath the limitation statement.
First edition of the catalogue published for the exhibition of works by Max Ernst, held from 15 November to the end of December 1961.
A fine copy.
Illustrated, with a foreword by Alain Bosquet.
Signed autograph inscription by Max Ernst to Madame de Harting.
First edition of the French translation, one of 26 lettered copies on Lana wove rag paper, issued as part of the tête-de-tirage.
A fine copy.
Album of signatures created by Cecil Henland, 1908 issue bearing 36 signatures of leading figures from literature, cinema, music, the press and French theatre, each dated between 1908 and 1910.
Bound in red shagreen, smooth spine with title gilt-stamped, vignette mounted on the upper cover, gilt edges, publisher’s binding.
Illustrated with a cover vignette with an ink signature of "The Ghost of a Celebrated General" (General Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts Association).
One of the most precious copies of this ghostly album, before Rorschach tests and Surrealist transfer drawings, previously belonging to Yvonne Redelsperger, future wife of the publisher Gaston Gallimard.
The greatest figures of the artistic Paris scene left strange signatures folded while still wet, revealing 36 skeleton-like ink silhouettes: Edmond Rostand, Georges Feydeau, Sacha Guitry, Maurice Leblanc and Gaston Leroux, Octave Mirbeau, Camille Saint-Saëns, as well as Marcel Proust’s close friends Paul Hervieu, Robert de Flers and Gaston de Caillavet – the latter two were inspirations for the character Robert de Saint-Loup in In Search of Lost Time.
Original ink drawing by Marie-Laure de Noailles, signed "Marie-Laure" within the artwork (appearing twice as a result of folding the paper while the ink was still wet). With an autograph postcard signed to Valentine Hugo, with 2 inscriptions and some parts of the photograph drawn over.
A Rorschach-like Surrealist decalcomania by Marie-Laure de Noailles created for painter and photographer Valentine Hugo, the “Queen of Hearts” of the Surrealists.
Autograph Manuscript Poem in Russian, entitled “Ананасы в шампанском,” signed by Igor Severyanin, twelve lines in three quatrains on a single sheet, with minor punctuation variations from the text originally published under the title Ouverture (Увертюра), inaugurating his collection Pineapple with Champagne (1915), from which it took its name.
Autograph Manuscript of the Masterpiece by the whimsical poet Igor Severyanin, one of the most emblematic poems of Russian literature, embodying the “Ego-Futurism” movement founded by the poet at the end of 1911 - the very first Futurist movement established in Russia.
On the eve of the Revolution, this work, both inspired and violently criticised by Mayakovsky, stands at the crossroads of Dadaist provocation, Futurist dynamism, and the dandyism of a bourgeois class soon to disappear.
First edition, one of 500 copies on ordinary paper.
This copy has a chemise and slipcase.
A little light spotting, not serious, nice copy.
Retaining its advertising band and slip.
Handsome autograph inscription signed by René Char: “à Man Ray au voyant carnassier de tout cœur R. Char.” (“To Man Ray to the carnivorous fortune teller, with all my heart, R. Char.”)
Unpublished, handwritten, signed letter from André Breton addressed to critic Charles Estienne; one page and a few lines in black ink on a paper from the à l'étoile scellée gallery.
Two transverse folds from having been sent, a small corner missing in the upper right margin.
Very beautiful letter giving an account of the death of one of André Breton's dearest friends and of his quarrel with Albert Camus.
Breton tells his friend about the death of the Surrealist Czech artist Jindřich Heisler: “Your letter spoke of those days where it seemed “that there was only just enough fire to live”: on Monday there was far from enough fire, when it reached me: one of my two or three best friends, Heisler, taken suddenly unwell on his way to mine on Saturday, had to be hospitalised urgently and I had just received the pneumatic from Bichat telling me of his death. The event, no less inconceivable than accomplished, left me distraught for a long time: there was no-one more exquisite than he, putting more warmth into everything he did, the most constant of which was to lighten and embellish those whom he loved.” The two poets were indeed very close: Heisler participated, alongside Breton, in the launch of Néon in 1948 and supported him during a period of depression, accompanying him with other friends to the Île de Sein. “The beginning of 1953 was overshadowed by the death of Jindřich Heisler (4 January). Loyal among the faithful, he “lived entirely for Surrealism” according to Breton, who pays tribute to his activity as a leader: “This is how he was between 1948 and 1950, the soul of Néon, and until his last moments the greatest bearer of projects that, as if by magic, his talent gave him the means to achieve.”” (Henri Béhar, André Breton)
First edition, with no deluxe-paper copies printed.
Illustrations.
A handsome copy despite the slightly faded spine.
Precious and fine signed presentation copy from Louis Aragon to Maurice Druon: "A Maurice Druon, pour qu'il sache que de temps je m'égarée dans Césarée. [sic] Louis".
First edition, one of 750 numbered copies on vélin paper, this not justified, the only printing along with 50 on Japan.
A good copy.
Aesthetic Surrealist autograph inscription by Benjamin Péret: '...Pourquoi la chevelure, me direz-vous? Oui, pourquoi? Parce que les cheveux remplacent les parapluies...' to his friend Léo Malet.
First edition of this magazine led by Ivan Goll, uniting French surrealists then in exile in the United States with their American peers.
Several contributions including those from Saint-John Perse, Roger Caillois, William Carlos Williams, Alain Bosquet, Ivan Goll, André Breton, Aimé Césaire, André Masson, Henry Miller, Kurt Seligmann, Denis de Rougemont, Julien Gracq, Eugène Guillevic, Robert Lebel...
Illustrations by George Barker, André Masson, Wifredo Lam, Yves Tanguy.
Pleasant and rare collection despite a small piece missing at the foot of the spine on the double issue 2 & 3.
Complete collection in 6 issues and 5 deliveries (numbers 2 & 3 being double) of this important magazine that offers a panorama of the Surrealist movement in exile and provides an insight into the influence of the contributors on the New York art scene.
A remarkable autograph poem of youth by André Breton dedicated to Guillaume Apollinaire entitled «Décembre». 20 verses in ink on vergé d'Arches paper, composed in December 1915. This manuscript was copied between March 1917 and the beginning of 1918.
This poem is presented in a chemise and case with paper boards decorated with abstract motifs, the spine of the chemise in green morocco, pastedowns and endpapers of beige suede, a sheet of flexible plexiglass protecting the poem, case lined with green morocco, piece of green paper with caption «poème autographe» to bottom of upper cover of case, the whole by Thomas Boichot.
Key poem of the author's pre-Dadaist period, it formed part of the set of 7 manuscript poems by Breton (known as coll. X. in the Œuvres complètes d'André Breton, volume I in La Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Gallimard, 1988, p. 1071). Thiese poems of his juvenilia are carefully copied out in black ink on watermarked vergé paper. The small collection was addressed to his circle of friends and writers, most notably including Valéry, Apollinaire, Théodore Fraenkel, and his brother in arms André Paris. They were later published in his first collection, Mont de piété, which appeared in June 1919, published by Au Sans Pareil, established not long before by his friend René Hilsum.
The precise dating of this set of autograph poems is made possible by the composition of the final poem in the set («André Derain»), written on 24 March 1917, which provides a definitive terminus post quem. An earlier version of the poem «Age», dedicated to Léon-Paul Fargue, appears in our collection under its original name, «Poème». Dated by the author 19 February 1916, the day of his 20th birthday, and composed 10 days previously (according to his letters), it was not retitled and reworked until its publication in July 1918 in Les Trois Roses. Judging by the similarities to things published before this last poem, the seven autograph poems were probably written during 1917 or at the beginning of 1918, while Breton was doing his residency in Val-de-Grâce and where, significantly, he made the acquaintance of Louis Aragon.
The poems that make up Mont de piété represent a rare and valuable insight into his youthful influences at the dawn of his joining the Dada movement and his discovery of automatic writing. Quite short and sometimes sibylline, one detects Symbolist highlights borrowed from Mallarmé, whom he rediscovered at poetry mornings in the théâtre Antoine and the Vieux-Colombier accompanied by his schoolfriend Théodore Fraenkel. During the first month of the War, Breton also dedicated himself to Rimbaud, plunging into Les Illuminations, the only work he carried with him in the confusion and haste that followed the outbreak of war. From his readings of Rimbaud were born the poems «Décembre», «Age», and «André Derain», while he borrowed Apollinaire's muse Marie Laurencin to whom he dedicated «L'an suave». The author's poetic inheritance was particularly marked by Paul Valéry, with whom he corresponded from 1914. Valéry played a considerable role in the writing of the poems of Mont de piété with the advice he gave the young poet. Admiring his disciple's audacity, who addressed each of these poems to him, he characterized the poem «Façon» (1916) thus: «The theme, language, scope, meter, everything is new, in the style, the manner of the future» (Letter of June 1916, Œuvres complètes d'André Breton, vol. I in La Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Gallimard, 1988, p. 1072).
These essential buds of Breton's youth were written between his seventeenth and twenty-third year. Taken by surprise in Lorient by the declaration of war, he became a military nurse, serving in several hospitals and on the front during the Meuse offensive. In Nantes, he met Jacques Vaché, who inspired him to undertake a project of collective writing, as well as encouraging him to have illustrated the future collection that was to become Mont de piété, a task eventually undertaken by André Derain. His intimacy with this «dandy revolting against art and war» who shared his admiration for Jarry and his contact with the mental patients of the Saint Dizier neurological and psychiatric centre, marked a decisive stage in the birth of Surrealism. Posted to the Val-de-Grâce from 1917, Breton found in Paris the necessary literary vibrancy for his poetic quest and began reciting Rimbaud in the company of Aragon. It was thanks to Apollinaire that he became friends with Soupault, the future co-author of Champs magnétiques, and Reverdy, founder of the review Nord-Sud, which went on to publish the poems of Mont de piété. The seven poems of the collection were printed in avant-garde reviews (Les Trois Roses, Solstices, Nord-Sud) between 1917 and the beginning of 1919.
Four of the seven poems were dedicated to friends and masters of the author: Léon-Paul Fargue, and above all Apollinaire, to whom Breton devoted a paper in L'éventail. Breton also paid homage to Marie Laurencin and André Derain, creators of «plastic works that are still completely new, exposed to an almost unanimous rejection and intolerance» that were dear to Breton throughout his life (XXe siècle, n°3, June 1952). With these dedications, he increased the number of complex allusions, dedicating to one a poem inspired by the other, as in for instance «Age», dedicated to Léon-Paul Fargue, which echoed Rimbaud and his poem «Aube» (Les Illuminations, 1895).
The correspondence and friendship between the two poets began with the dedication of this poem, which Breton wrote in 1915. Apollinaire immediately spotted, in these lines that Breton had entrusted to him «a striking talent» (letter of 21 December 1915). Still under the spell of Rimbaud and the late Symbolism of Valéry when he wrote this poem, Breton found in Apollinaire a new poetic direction and told him a year later: «I confessed without protest the attraction you held for me. The seduction was so overwhelming that I cannot, for the moment, write about it.» The fractured structure of «Décembre» is testimony to a change that was already proceeding in the young poets work, 21 at the time. Alexandrines were set beside verses of a few syllables that dismantled meter. «At 25, the hotel with its [plug of [mistletoe I dodge the unjust spawn, O [white [soil! Hello – Europe languishes in [next [year's flames The song of the fennel – and [there [you are! We stay silent.» Breton also sent the poem to Valéry on the 14th December, who remarked on his new technique: «As to the very singular verses with their bold breaks, their allure broken and illuminated by the flash of the soliloquies at the corner of the fire, I find them an interesting study of something else, a new test of yourself.» The poem is set on the 25th December, a strange Christmas peopled by «flowering missals», «Mages» and «mangy clocks». Breton inserted another subtle dedication to his model (the «plug of mistletoe»), playing on Apollinaire's surname (Gui), which figures in his poems and his letters. «Décembre» is also the first poem by Breton directly to mention the War, and finishes on a dark image. «Private, Over there, conscript of the earth and [the standard, to be! And my arms, their warm creepers [that held you fast? - I would have savaged the life of your [poor angel breast.» This mark of admiration from Breton was followed by a study devoted to the poet's work, shortly after the publication of «Décembre» in L'Éventail on the 15 February 1919. As well as his influence as a poet and an art critic, Apollinaire posthumously contributed significantly to the birth of the post-War avant-garde movements: for if Breton was to be the theoretician behind Surrealism, it was nonetheless Apollinaire who invented the word, not to mention introducing Breton and Soupault. An extremely rare and fascinating manuscript from the young André Breton, dedicated to Apollinaire, the first Surrealist and guide for the new generation of post-War poets.
First edition, one of 1,000 numbered copies on offset.
A fine copy.
Illustrated with 10 drawings by René Magritte.
First collected edition of which there were no grand papier (deluxe) copies, an advance (service de presse) copy.
A nice copy despite a tiny tear to foot of upper cover.
Rare autograph inscription signed by Robert Desnos to Pierre Berger: " ces feuilles déjà bien vieilles..."
First edition printed on alfa paper.
A small tear at the foot of one joint discreetly restored, a pleasant copy.
Precious autograph inscription signed by Philippe Soupault to René Crevel in pencil.
First edition, one of 500 numbered copies on Featherweight, the only deluxe issue.
Small loss and foxing to the headcap and upper edge, a crease and minor tears to the front cover, endpapers slightly toned without consequence.
Exceptional signed autograph presentation from Benjamin Fondane: « A Jacques Prévert cordialement. B. Fondane. Paris / 3 / 33. »
First edition, one of 950 copies on Vélin Vidalon signed by André Marchand, the only printing following 49 copies on Vélin d'Arches.
Bound in black morocco-backed boards with corners, smooth spine, gilt fillet borders on cat's eye paper-covered boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers and spine preserved, all edges gilt. Slipcase edged in black morocco, marbled paper panels. Binding signed by D. Saporito.
Illustrated with 50 splendid original lithographs by André Marchand, printed by Mourlot.
Featuring previously unpublished texts by Georges Spyridaki, René Lacôte, Georges Hugnet, Gabriel Audisio, Raymond Queneau, David Herbert Lawrence, Pierre Emmanuel, Luc Decaunes, Léon-Marie Brest, Jean Grenier, Antonio Machado, Marie Mauron, Paul Eluard...
A handsome and finely bound copy.
First edition, one of 800 numbered copies on Montgolfier paper.
Illustrated with two original hors-texte drypoints and in-text drawings by Jean Lurçat.
Spine and covers slightly and marginally faded, as usual; a well-preserved copy overall.
First edition, 15 issues in 15 separate installments, abundantly illustrated with black and white photographs. Complete with the special issue "Hommage à Picasso" (No. 3, 1930) and the index for the year 1929, published as a separate 8-page stapled booklet.
Presented in a custom slipcase with a flat spine in blue morocco, title stamped in palladium and spine framed in palladium, decorative blue paper boards, sky-blue suede doublures; a handsome ensemble signed Boichot.
Some spines slightly faded not affecting the text, occasional minor foxing along the margins of certain covers.
Complete series of this legendary and non-conformist magazine founded by Georges Bataille, which gave voice to "fields of art and knowledge unrecognized by official culture or considered controversial: popular literature, jazz, cabaret, advertising, everyday life" (Annie Pirabot), along with so-called primitive art and objects.
First edition, one of 249 numbered copies on B.F.K. de Rives, the only printing alongside 1 on Hollande and 24 on cream Renage vellum.
Illustrated with 4 original color lithographs by Rufino Tamayo.
This copy is further enriched with an additional suite of the 4 lithographs by Rufino Tamayo, usually reserved for the deluxe copies.
Printed stamps to the versos of each engraving: "Annulation d'estampille pour annulation de vente".
A rare and desirable copy.
Exceptional and Surrealist autograph inscription signed by Benjamin Péret to Toyen, inspired by the Aztec pantheon: "A Toyen la fille de Pilzintacutli, son ami Huitzilopochtli. Rectifions : son père est Xochipilli, l'autre n'esu qu'un intrus. Benjamin Péret 2 juin 1953."
Autograph letter dated and signed by André Breton, 21 lines in blue ink on a single sheet, addressed to Georges Isarlo of the journal Combat-Art concerning a text given to him by his friend José Pierre.
True to form, the leading figure and high priest of Surrealism seeks to clarify matters with his correspondent: "Vous comprendrez sûrement le souci que je puis avoir de ne pas, sous un vain prétexte d'anniversaire, laisser dénaturer le sens et gâter le fruit de quarante années de lutte et voudrez bien considérer qu'il a pour tous ses signataires - répondants du surréalisme aujourd'hui - la même importance vitale que pour moi."
" What will be dispersed here, let it be said that for some it is a bit of time's treasure. Of the manna from which we draw what we need to make ourselves this shell_ the furnishing in the very broad sense where it conditions as much the choice of books as of [ornaments] plants or birds. So rare are those who, like Lise Deharme, have known how to extract what is electively made for them from both the interior [exterior] and the exterior [interior]. "To the country that resembles you", is it not of this that Baudelaire spoke?
And one finds again his melancholy in seeing, in the wind, fly like seeds [fly in the wind like a thistle] these things that so much passionate discernment had gathered as if, around the one who surrounded herself with them, they had come obeying a law of pure attraction.
The poetic taste of an epoch in what it has of specific, has sparkled there as nowhere else. That in particular it may be permitted me to say that [in its sovereign caprice, and what it exalted of the present and retained of the past] Surrealism, through several of us, has keenly undergone the ascendancy of this sovereign caprice.
"Write down everything that passes by your window" said [says] Lise and [no longer thinks today of keeping anything for herself, only the] here she adds: keep nothing but what you hold from the source's murmur of that year and from the perfume of the Moss Pot.
But everything from which she separates thanks to her will remain so charged with spirit that nothing will be able to extinguish it in its gravitation toward other destinies"
First edition. Very scarce and sought-after, like all of his writings. This play is inspired by his tumultous life, namely the poisoning attempt he allegedly suffered from the hands of his lover Jeanne Sarrey.
With a very rare autograph letter signed by Xavier Forneret, one of the few surviving manuscripts of this bohemian Romantic rediscovered by Surrealists.
The scandalous genius attempts to have Mère et fille performed at the Théâtre de la Gaîté. Letter dated by the author May 27, 1854, addressed to playwright Charles Desolme. Two pages in black ink on a bifolium, small tear along the fold, no damage to the text.
Forneret, a fundamentally marginal literary figure, who evolved outside the Parisian literary circles, had great difficulty staging his plays in Dijon and Paris. Mère et fille lays bare "the feelings of the family, stripped of the movement of incidental characters and the clatter of a grand staging", in the author's own words. Forneret's attempts in this letter to stage the play with Hippolyte Hostein, then director of the Théâtre de la Gaîté, were in vain. The play premiered the following year at the Montmartre theater, and Forneret spent a fortune promoting it. It was scheduled to be performed - along with Jamais, another of his plays now lost - once again at the Théâtre de l'Ambigu, which reneged on its commitment. Well acquainted with the courts of justice, Fourneret successfully sued his director Charles Desnoyers in 1856, who defended himself by declaring that it was "impossible to stage [the plays], because they were unplayable". Nearly a century later, Forneret's works, mostly self-published and neglected by his contemporaries, were rediscovered by the Surrealists, who finally proclaimed Forneret's literary importance with other outcasts like Lautréamont and Raymond Roussel.
"My dear Monsieur Desolme,
According to our conversation yesterday about the return of my manuscript, I regret that M. Hostein, in committing this act of convenience, had not told me that there was a way of coming to an agreement if I consented to a few possible modifications, of scenic requirement; for I do not claim to have written a masterpiece to which it is forbidden to subtract or add an iota. If, therefore, M. Hostein would agree to keep the title of my play, the final events of each act, and agree between us, in a single session (if this is possible) on the changes to be made to my work [...] if, on the contrary, M. le Director of la Gaîté were to make another piece of my drama, to the extent that I would be ashamed to sign it, a work that would no longer be mine, I would be forced to withdraw; indeed, what would be left for me - I ask you, or any man of good logic and good faith? [...] I'm leaving the day after tomorrow, Monday, but I'll be back soon if we don't come to an agreement, so determined am I that Mère et fille will find somewhere to be played [...].
Manuscript note by Philippe Soupault, 22 lines in mauve ink on a sheet, headed with this inscription: "Les séances", devoted to the famous "sleep" sessions conducted in André Breton's studio consisting of oneiric writings or texts dictated by a dreamer.
The manuscript notes contain three deletions and corrections.
Philippe Soupault considers his attempts questionable and even labels them as imposture, distancing himself from any active participation in these practices: "Neither Aragon nor I participated actively in the experiments called sleep sessions, while Breton accepted with great interest Crevel's suggestion to engage in experiments he had discovered among friends. One had to fall asleep and recount what 'one saw'..."
He recalls the results that were not always convincing: "Crevel, Desnos and Péret 'fell asleep' and, despite his efforts, Breton could not manage to fall asleep. Listening to the accounts of these sessions, I could not help thinking that the 'sleepers' did not hesitate to simulate in order to make themselves interesting." to such an extent that the intransigent leader of surrealism interrupted them: "Breton realized the danger of one-upmanship and especially of Desnos's exaltation. He ceased attempting new sleep experiments."
Interesting recollections from the last living historical surrealist, often harsh toward his former or new companions.
First edition, a Service de Presse (advance) copy.
A discreet restoration using a small adhesive piece on the verso of the first cover extending onto the first endpaper.
Autograph inscription signed by André Breton: "A Claude Aveline, hommage d'André Breton".
Nicknamed at 21 "the world's youngest publisher," Claude Aveline would publish from 1922 onwards, thanks to André Gide and Georges Duhamel, some fifty works. In 1934, he would engage in politics, alongside Henri Barbusse and Romain Rolland, in the anti-fascist movement then, from August 1940, in the Resistance first in Paris then in the free zone where he would miraculously escape arrest by the Gestapo in April 1944.
First edition, one of 75 numbered copies on surfine colored paper.
Work illustrated with 3 aquatints by Mimi Parent.
One scratch with three light stains on the first cover.
Handsome copy.
Precious and surrealist autograph inscription signed by José Pierre to Marie Cermínová Toyen: "A Toyen, les violons monégasques fabriqués secrètement dans les presbytères en partant de l'anémone de mer, José." (To Toyen, the Monégasque violins secretly manufactured in presbyteries starting from the sea anemone, José.)
Signatures of José Pierre and Mimi Parent below the justification page.
First edition, one of 35 numbered copies on Rives paper, the deluxe issue.
At the colophon, manuscript signatures in pencil by Micheline Catti and Ghérasim Luca.
A rare and handsome copy.
As stated in the limitation, our copy is complete with the original drypoint by Micheline Catti and the original etching by Ghérasim Luca, both signed by them in pencil.
First edition, one of 500 copies of this catalogue for the exhibition Les invendables [The Unsellables], featuring 40 drawings and paintings at the Galerie Alphonse Chave.
Illustrated with 5 full-page black lithographs and 6 tipped-in colour plates.
In his characteristically provocative style, Man Ray opens with a preface mocking collectors' tendency to purchase names on canvas rather than the artworks themselves. Among the pieces selected for this book are several examples from his series of automatic paintings called "Peintures naturelles " (including the cover) created without the use of a brush. Among the other artworks one can find subtle allusions to famous painters: a Déjeuner sur l'herbe, a markedly Picassian Centaure, disjointed marionette figures (Antipolis) evoking the compositional language of de Chirico, and an Observatoire reminiscent of a Braque still life.
First edition, one of 200 copies numbered on wove paper, the only issue after 25 copies on Normandy vellum.
Spine and boards slightly and marginally sunned, without seriousness.
First edition, one of 250 numbered copies on vellum, the only printing after 25 copies on Holland paper.
Spine and boards slightly and marginally faded, as generally encountered.
Autograph inscription signed by Céline Arnauld to the poet Henri Hertz.
First edition, one of 500 copies on wove paper, after 13 copies on Auvergne and 60 on Rives.
Illustrated with four original photomontages.
Exceptionally inscribed by Georges Hugnet on the half-title page to the Dadaist Raoul Hausmann: "à mon très grand / et très estimable ami / Raoul Haussmann / en toute affection / GEORGES HUGNET / le 9 juin 1961", with an original collage signed with his initials and dated ("G.H. 1961").
First edition, printed in a limited run of 70 copies numbered on Montval paper and signed by Georges Hugnet.
Illustrated with a frontispiece etching by Stanley William Hayter.
Two poignant autograph inscriptions signed by Georges Hugnet—one to his father and one to his son—in blue and red pencil: "à Georges Hugnet mon père en souvenir des romans noirs dont il enchanta et peupla mon enfance. Georges Hugnet."; "Et maintenant vingt-ans après, à mon très cher fils Nicolas de la part de son grand-père qui l'aurait bien aimé de tout cœur son papa. G."
First edition, one of the press copies.
A pleasing copy.
Fine signed autograph inscription from René Char: "A Georges Hugnet affectueusement. René Char."
Original collage by Georges Hugnet, signed in white ink "G.H. 1961". Matted and under a wooden frame without glass. A tiny 5 mm marginal tear.
An irreverent, whimsical photo-collage by the Surrealist artist and writer Georges Hugnet. Throughout his diverse oeuvre, collage represented an enduring passion for Hugnet, placing him as among the leading innovators in the medium in the XXth century.
Rare complete set of four pamphlets with poems by Georges Hugnet in first edition published during the Occupation, illustrated by Picasso, Joan Miro, and Valentine Hugo. The first titled "Non-vouloir" was limited to only 26 copies; our copy is one of the 20 copies on vergé antique de Montval, following 6 copies on japon. The three others on ordinary paper from a limited edition of 200 copies.
"Non-vouloir" was the first resistance poem published openly and signed by its author without being subjected to censorship. Composed between March and June 1940, Hugnet's poem stands as a poetic manifesto of refusal against defeat and occupation, echoing General De Gaulle's famous radio speach of June 18. Hugnet became an early member of the resistance and joined the group "La Main à plume" which printed numerous clandestine tracts. He used his bookbinding workshop to forge false documents and, under the pseudonym "Malo le Bleu", contributed notably to "L'honneur des poètes", a collection of resistance poetry published clandestinely in 1943 by the famous Editions de Minuit.
First edition, limited to 59 numbered copies on Arches vellum, signed in pink pencil by André Masson beneath the limitation statement.
Rare and fine copy.
Illustrated with two original etchings by André Masson, printed full-bleed and issued hors texte.
First edition, one of 647 numbered copies on pure rag paper, being the only deluxe paper issue after 109 reimposed copies.
Fine copy.
First edition and complete run of the 9 G.L.M. cahiers issued between May 1936 and March 1939.
A few spines slightly faded, as is often the case; otherwise a pleasing copy, complete with its original publisher’s slipcase in full grey boards, with red printed title label pasted to the spine.
With numerous contributions by most of the Surrealist poets, writers, and artists, including: André Breton, René Char, Paul Éluard, Philippe Soupault, René Crevel, Valentine Penrose, Federico García Lorca, Pablo Neruda, Michel Leiris, Max Ernst, Man Ray, and André Masson, as well as several spiritual forebears of Surrealism such as Franz Kafka, Lewis Carroll, and Raymond Roussel...
First edition, one of 200 numbered copies on “light green paper,” the only deluxe paper issue announced.
Turquoise half morocco binding, smooth spine, date in gilt at foot, marbled paper boards, endpapers, and pastedowns, original wrappers and spine preserved, top edge gilt; an elegant contemporary binding signed by G. Gauché.
A very handsome copy, finely bound by Georges Gauché and complete with its publisher's prospectus.
Signed presentation inscription by René Crevel: "My dear Georges, here, in its finest form: Diderot’s Harpsichord, if you can help him play his music? With all my affection. René" (our own translation)
First edition, deluxe issue, one of 58 numbered copies on Montval paper signed by the artist on the colophon, with two original color lithographs signed by Max Ernst.
Additionally illustrated with 11 full-page drawings reproduced in black and reproductions of paintings by the artist, including one folding plate.
Copy as issued, green wrappers illustrated with an original artwork by Ernst in perfect condition without any trace of discoloration as is commonly found.
Pristine copy of the Max Ernst exhibition catalogue published in 1950 by the René Drouin gallery in Paris, signed by the artist with two signed lithographs, as well as texts by Joë Bousquet and Michel Tapié.
First edition, one of 170 numbered copies on tinted Rives wove, the only issue following 40 copies on Arches wove enhanced with an additional suite of the illustrations.
A fine copy.
Work illustrated with three etchings by Alberto Giacometti.
First edition featuring the celebrated original color stencil "Aidez l'Espagne!", printed on Arches paper by Joan Miró.
With literary contributions by Christian Zervos on Pablo Picasso's "Guernica", as well as texts by Jean Cassou, Georges Duthuit, Pierre Mabille, Michel Leiris, Paul Éluard, René Char...
Illustrated with numerous reproductions of works by Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró’s "Le faucheur".
Some rubbing and small tears to the spine, as often, a vertical crease to the rear wrapper, otherwise a fresh and well-preserved copy.
Autograph envelope addressed by André Breton to his friend Géo Dupin, curator of the La Cour d'Ingres art gallery at 17 quai Voltaire, from whom the Pope of Surrealism acquired several paintings.
The address is written in black ink (some letters slightly smudged).
A well-preserved example.
First edition of this important and very rare magazine, complete with 4 issues in 3 volumes.
Complete collection of this luxurious Surrealist magazine, edited and funded by Lise Deharme and characterized by its emphasis on photography. Covers illustrated by Man Ray, illustrations in black.
Contributions by Salvador Dali, Hans Arp, Dora Maar, Oscar Dominguez, Brassaï, Lee Miller, Jacques Lacan, James Joyce, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, Ilarie Voronca, Nathalie Barney, Benjamin Fondane, Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, Alejo Carpentier, Eugène Jolas, Lise Hirtz [Lise Deharme], Raymond Queneau, Claude Sernet, Roger Vitrac, Robert Desnos, Jean Follain, Léon-Paul Fargue, Pierre Keffer, Jacques Baron, Gottried Benn, Céline Arnauld, Monny de Boully, Georgette Camille, André de Richaud, Jules Supervielle, Claire Goll, Paul Laforgue, David Herbert Lawrence, Marcel Jouhandeau, Paul Dermée, Jean Painlevé, Nadar, Pétrus Borel and Stendhal. Sunned spine on the No. 3/4 issue. Spine-ends and corners slightly rubbed, otherwise a wonderfully preserved copy.
A very fine example of this rare avant-garde magazine, which "came into being over the course of a few dinners that brought together the dissidents of Surrealism and other poets in this hospitable abode [of Lise Deharme]. Robert Desnos provided the title. Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes was the editor. Man Ray had designed the cover: a silhouette of a lighthouse against a photographic background of sailing boats. [...] It contains curiosities: a tale by Petrus Borel, a photo by Nadar, popular songs, an investigation into the neurosis of war, epitaphs taken from a cemetery of animals. Among other curiosities, a sonnet by the famous psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. It is entitled Hiatus irrationalis." (Jacques Baron, Cahiers de l'Herne Raymond Queneau, p. 333).
First edition of this pamphlet, with contributions by Éluard, Tzara, Marcel Duchamp under his pseudonym Rrose Sélavy, Benjamin Péret, Erik Satie, Philippe Soupault, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, Vincente Huidboro, Walter Serner, Matthew Josephson, Théodore Fraenkel.
Three copies found in institutions (BnF, Thomas J. Watson Library, Princeton University Library, Ryerson & Burnham Libraries - Art Institute of Chicago).
Cover designed by Ilia Zdanevich (Iliazd) on a motif created out of 19th-century woodcuts: “The cover of Le Coeur à barbe is an emblematic image of the Dada aesthetic, where old engravings are combined with words to create visual puns and unpredictable associations.” (Princeton University Museum).
Extremely rare copy in excellent condition of the only published issue of this famous Dada journal - Tristan Tzara's counterattack to André Breton's criticism in the March 2, 1922 issue of Comœdia.