SURREALISM

[Angus McBean, Welsh photographer and set designer associated with surrealism.] Bromide print of photographic portrait of Moya Macqueen-Pope, daughter of theatre historian W. Macqueen-Pope.

Author: 
Angus McBean [Angus Rowland McBean] (1904-1990), Welsh photographer and set designer associated with surrealism [Moya Macqueen-Pope (b.1916), daughter of theatre historian Walter James Macqueen-Pope]
Publication details: 
Undated. Stamp on reverse of ‘Angus McBean / Photographer / Maskmaker / 29B Belgrave Road, / London, S.W.1. / Telephone: Victoria 1048.’
£350.00

From the papers of W. Macqueen-Pope. See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. The National Portrait Gallery holds McBean’s portrait of MP, but not the present item, of which no other copy has been traced. 17.5 x 25 cm. In fair condition, with two corners dogeared; the reverse, carrying McBean’s stamp, is rather discoloured. Also on the reverse, in pencil is ‘Moya Macqueen-Pope’. Plain background.

[Pavel Tchelitchew, Russian surrealist painter.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Pavel') to 'My dear, dear Sweet Stephen' [Stephen Tennant?], regarding his love of Italy, theatre design in America, Lincoln Kirstein and Osbert Sitwell.

Author: 
Pavel Tchelitchew (1898-1957), Russian émigré surrealist painter, set designer and costume designer [Lincoln Kirstein; Osbert Sitwell; Stephen Tennant]
Publication details: 
'Lecourbe 43 – 65, 2 rue Jacques Mawas, Paris.' 23 April 1953.
£350.00

2pp., 4to. Aged and worn, but legible. A splendid effervescent letter, highly characteristic, written in demotic English in a close unruly hand. Tchelitchew was a close friend (lover?) of Edith Sitwell, and in addition to her brother Osbert, the letter contains references to Lincoln Kirstein (1907-1996), influential figure in New York culture, founder with George Balanchine of the New York City Ballet and the School of American Ballet, and the book he was writing on Tchelitchew, as well as to Tchelitchew's partner the writer Charles Henry Ford (1908-2002).

[ Philip West, English surrealist artist. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Philip.') to 'Vieanne', regarding his newly-born daughter Sandra Mercedes.

Author: 
Philip West (1949-1997), English Surrealist artist based in Spain
Publication details: 
Zaragoza [ Saragossa, Spain ]. 8 March 1977.
£56.00

1p., 8vo. Signed in blue felt-tip pen. Letterhead illustration of drawing by West, picked out in blue and red felt-tip. A jokey letter beginning: 'ta very much for the dress - it didn't fit me so now Sandra wears it. We have called her Sandra Mercedes. Sandra, though perhaps not very evocative, is easily pronounced in both English and Spanish.

[ Surrealism. ] Set of twelve photographic slides, with accompanying booklet in French, of work by Ernst, Miro, Arp, Malkine, Tanguy, Dali, Giacometti, Magritte, Masson and Man Ray, to accompany Patrick Waldberg's book.

Author: 
[ Patrick Waldberg (1913-1985), poet and expert on Surrealism; Ernst, Miro, Arp, Malkine, Tanguy, Dali, Giacometti, Magritte, Masson and Man Ray ]
Publication details: 
'Dossier 5-306 et 307 Juin-Juillet 1970'. 'Droits de reproduction reserves S. P. A. D. E. M., Syndicat de la Propriete Artistique, et A. D. A. G. P., Association pour la Diffusion des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques, Paris.'
£220.00

In very good condition, in transparent plastic waller. Accompanied by two booklets in French, containing extensive scholarly text on each painting. From the Philip West archive.

[James Stevens Cox, antiquary and bookseller.] Two of his pamphlets, published by his Toucan Press: 'The Richard Curle Collection of the Works of Cicely Veronica Wedgwood' and 'Surrealism and the Coiffure'. With Richard Curle's monograph on Cox..

Author: 
[James Stevens Cox (1910-1997), antiquary, bookseller and proprietor of the Toucan Press; Richard Curle (1883-1968); surrealism; hairdressing]
Publication details: 
'The Richard Curle Collection': Published by J. Stevens Cox at the Toucan Press, Beaminster, Dorset, 1961. 'Surrealism and the Coiffure', 2nd edition, Toucan Press, Mount Durand, St Peter Port, Guernsey, C.I. 1977. Curle's monograph Stirling, 1962.
£220.00

The three items in good condition, with minor aging and the last two items lightly-creased. ONE: 'The Richard Curle Collection of the Works of Cicely Veronica Westwood'. Published by J. Stevens Cox at the Toucan Press, Beaminster, Dorset, 1961. 19pp., 16mo. In green printed wraps. Stapled. '65 copies printed'. Four-page introduction, in which Cox writes: 'I wish to emphasise, however, that, despite the amplitude of the muster, this is not a Bibliography.

Signed and limited lithograph ('lithographie originale de Luc Simon. Mourlot. Editeur'), with Autograph Note Signed ('luc simon [to which he has added the names of his wife and her children 'FRANCOISE | Aurelia | PALOMA | CLAUDE').

Author: 
Luc Simon (b.1924), French post-surrealist painter [Francoise Gilot; Paloma Picasso; Fernand Mourlot; Editions Mourlot]
Publication details: 
[Editions Mourlot, Paris.] In the form of a New Year's card for 1959. Note dated 31 December.
£175.00

Landscape bifolium card on good-quality paper. Leaf dimensions 18.5 x 27.5 cm. In good condition, on slightly-aged paper, with a couple of small light patches of coffee staining. Printed in black and yellow. Elaborate design showing a winged youth (something of a cross between Jack Frost and Mercury), with winged heels, clutching a bouquet of flowers, flying over a buiding of modern design surrounded by fir trees. Signed in pencil 'luc simon' in bottom right-hand corner, with the limitation 'H. C. 15/100' in pencil in the bottom right.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Osbert') to 'My dear James'.

Author: 
Osbert Sitwell [Sir Francis Osbert Sacheverell Sitwell, 5th Baronet] (1892-1969), English writer and aesthete
Publication details: 
Monday' [no date]; on illustrated letterhead of Renishaw Hall, Derbyshire (amended by Sitwell to 'Renishaw | N[ear]. Sheffield').
£120.00

12mo, 2 pp. Very good. Attractive letterhead with engraved illustration of 'Renishaw Hall | Derbyshire' (last word crossed out by Sitwell). Written in purple ink. Asks if there is 'anything to be made of a curtain-raiser, or short film, which wd. show Napoleon catching the cold, which lost him the Battle of Waterloo? . . It is an amusing idea.' He considers that it is 'sure to have been some very silly person who sneezed at him . . . Or is the idea nonsense!'

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