Bakst, Léon
Hand-illustrated typescript copies of two works
£404
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 8 February 2023 at 10:00 GMT
Description
'The Designs of Léon Bakst for The Sleeping Princess. A Ballet in Five Acts after Perrault. Music by Tchaikovsky. Preface by André Levinson. London: Benn Brothers Limited, 1923' [i.e. Edinburgh, 1942-c.1946];
'Bakst: The Story of the Artist's Life. By Andre Levinson. London: The Bayard Press, 1923' [i.e. Edinburgh, 1941-c.1946].
Both large 4to (approx. 38 x 30cm), contemporary cloth bindings, 130 and 152 pp., typescript on card (rectos and versos), each hand-illustrated throughout with watercolours (and a few pencil drawings) fully replicating the original illustrations in the published works, The Designs accordingly with title-vignette, 2 medallion portraits, portrait of Bakst (after Picasso, in pencil), decorative headpiece and calligraphic titles, and 55 costume and set designs after Bakst, these nearly all mounted and frequently heightened in metallic paint, Bakst: The Story with portrait of Bakst (after Modigliani), and some 100 costume and set designs after Bakst (both mounted and direct), each additionally illustrated with numerous contemporary photographic cuttings depicting Nijinsky, Pavlova, the 1946 Royal Opera House production of The Sleeping Princess (with Margot Fonteyn), etc., tissue-guards throughout, The Designs with occasional spotting to mounts, Bakst: The Story binding somewhat shaken
Footnote
Note: A note on the verso of the title-page of each work states that it is a copy made from that in the National Library of Scotland; that in The Designs is initialled 'W. G. B'.