Foujita's Great Rare Book Of Cats Est. $60K-$80K At Bonham's

by Stephen J. Gertz

A copy of Michael Joseph's Book of Cats, published in New York by Covici Friede, 1930, with drawings by Tsuguharu Foujita (1886-1968), is being offered by Bonham's in its Fine Books and Manuscripts sale on Monday, February 10, 2014, in Los Angeles as lot 103, It is estimated to sell for $60,000 - $80,000.

The book, comprised of twenty prose poems by Joseph with twenty accompanying full-page etched plate drawings by Foujita is here in its limited edition of 500 copies, this being copy no. 333. It is signed by Foujita on the limitation page and features a plate signed by Foujita, Semiramis. This copy includes an additional suite of the plates on Japanese vellum with fragments of the original envelope they were housed in.

Tsuguharu Foujita was the most important Japanese artist working in the West during the 20th century.

Foujita by Madame D'Ora, 1927.

And he loved cats.

"His name in Japanese means "field of wisteria, heir to peace." He was the son of a general, and a black belt in judo. In Paris during the 1920s - where he was known as Fou-Fou or Mad-Mad - Tsuguharu Foujita was the most famous (and most eccentric) artist in Montparnasse. He had a haircut modeled on an Egyptian statue and a wristwatch tattooed on his wrist. He wore earrings, a Greek-style tunic, a "Babylonian" necklace, and on occasion a lampshade instead of a hat. (He claimed it was his national headdress)...

"He arrived in Paris from Tokyo in 1913 and soon rented a studio in the Cité Falguière, where Modigliani and the Lithuanian-born painter Chaim Soutine were working. Foujita was a good cook; he was meticulously clean - he tried to teach Soutine to brush his teeth and to use a knife and a fork. Foujita had frequented Isadora and Raymond Duncan's school of movement and dance (hence the Greek-style tunics). He'd favored the Café La Rotonde, where Trotsky used to play chess, over the Dôme, the favorite haunt of the Fauvists" (Durden-Smith. Lost Art, Departures, July/August 1999).

He and Modigliani hung out together. He was pals with Leger, Gris, Braque, and Matisse, By 1918 he was the most famous artist in Paris, at his peak more successful than Picasso, another good friend. When he installed a bathtub with hot running water in his studio he became everybody's best friend; female models flocked to his studio. Alice Ernestine Prin, aka Kiki, when not posing for him was a fixture in his tub. He was the cleanest man in town and the toast of Montparnasse. In 1925 he won France's Legion de Honneur and the Belgian Order of Leopold I.

In 1926, the French state bought its first Foujita. Not quite twenty-five years later, France bought its first Picasso. He was married three times.

Foujita's artwork at auction has reflected his strength and reputation, with prices in the low-four to mid-five figures for drawings, and upwards of $400,000 for paintings. Prices for the Book of Cats in its original limited edition have been very healthy. This is a book that appears to be recession-proof, with art collectors and cat fanciers vying for precious few copies in collectible condition. Without the extra suite of plates auction prices have lately ranged from $25,000 - $30,000. Within the last few years copies with the additional suite have sold for $42,000 - $60,000. This is a book that will never lose its value as long as cat people with a bankful o' kibble desire it. This volume is certainly the most popular and desirable book on cats ever published.

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UPDATE 2/11/2014: Sold for $77,500 incl. premium. 

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Foujita cat images courtesy of Bonham's, with our thanks. Some images may appear here in different tone than in the copy offered. 

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Jim Tully, Forgotten Hobo Novelist, Finally Gets His Due

by Stephen J. Gertz

This week, Jim Tully (1886-1947), the hobo novelist who wrote hard-boiled before hard-boiled became Hard-Boiled and a distinctly American and unique prose style, is the subject of a long overdue celebration of his life and books.

The Tully festival, occurring in in Los Angeles, kicks-off on Wednesday evening October 10, 2012 with a 7:30 PM screening at the American Cinematheque in Hollywood of Laughter in Hell (1933), based upon Tully's novel of the same title, and, until recently, thought long-lost. Starring Pat O'Brien and a young, gorgeous pre-Titanic Gloria Stuart in this chain-gang melodrama, it's only one of two films adapted from Tully novels, the other being the early Talkie, Beggars of Life (1928). 

Tully, the Ohio-born son of an Irish ditch-digger,  hit the road in 1901 at age fifteen, spending most of his teenage years in the company of hoboes. While chasing his dream of becoming a writer, Tully rode the rails and worked as a tree surgeon, boxer, and newspaper reporter. All the while, he was crafting his memories into a dark and original chronicle of the American underclass. He ultimately exploded onto the scene with a stream of critically acclaimed novels, among them Beggars of Life (1924), Circus Parade (1927), Shanty Irish (1928), Shadows of Men (1930) and Blood on the Moon (1931). Tully’s novel Ladies In The Parlor (1935) was declared obscene and most copies were destroyed,

Authentic and the real deal, Tully drew Hollywood's attention and he became friends with W. C. Fields, Jack Dempsey, Damon Runyon, Lon Chaney, Frank Capra, and Erich von Stroheim. Tully was a treasury of colorful anecdotes on two legs and what he didn't commit to paper spilled out of his mouth. Everyone in town wanted to share the company of this colorful individual.

By the mid-1940s, however, crippling physical ailments and personal heartbreak had the writer on the ropes. With his death in 1947, his name slipped from the front ranks of American Letters and into obscurity.

No more.

The Tully festival continues on Thursday, October 11th. Tully is subject of the Bonnie Cashin Lecture at UCLA (4 p.m.), in conjunction with the opening of an exhibit devoted to Tully,  The Life and Times of Jim Tully: From Drifter to Celebrated Author, in the UCLA Special Collections Dept., which holds Tully's papers.

On Sunday, October 14th at 3PM, starting out at Larry Edmunds Bookshop on Hollywood Boulevard, Tully biographers Paul Bauer and Mark Dawidziaka will conduct a walking tour of Hollywood to show off Tully-themed locations.  

The festival wraps on Monday, October 15 from 6-11 PM at the Los Angeles Visionary Association's (LAVA) salon at Musso & Franks, the famed Hollywood Blvd restaurant and writers hangout, with a formal dinner themed "Jim Tully: A Hobo in Hollywood," and presentations by his biographers,  literary historian and rare book dealer Howard Prouty, and Hollywood historian Philip Mershon. Attendance  is limited; reserve your seat at the table now. This is a trés cool event.

The Jim Tully revival has begun in earnest. Prices for Tully first editions in dust jacket currently range from $175 - $1050. As of this writing an European dealer is currently offering a copy of Tully's banned and print-run destroyed Ladies of the Parlor w/o DJ for only $356; he doesn't know what he has. 

I expect that, like the first editions of once-obscure novelist John Fante after Charles Bukowski declared his love for the writer, Tully firsts will rise in value.

Jim Tully,  a missing link in the evolution of modern American literature, is no longer missing in action.

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In an amusing aside, the legendary "lost" status of Laughter in Hell turned out to be a case of  lazy researchers rather than gone-forever film.  A print had been sitting on a shelf in Universal's vault the whole time; nobody bothered to check. Enter Howard Prouty, ABAA proprietor of ReadInk and Acquisitions Archivist at The Academy Foundation / Margaret Herrick Library, who simply picked up the phone and called Universal. Voíla! Lost film found.

"Many saw the dark side of the American dream,
but none wrote about it like Jim Tully."

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All images courtesy of Howard Prouty, with our thanks.

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Tully's novels are now, finally, being reprinted, published by Black Squirrel Books, a division of Kent State University Press.

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Edmund Dulac's Persian Pearls

By Stephen J. Gertz

Neither serpents, nor magicians, nor sickness, nor accidents can touch him who has and holds in honour a pearl born in the head of a serpent (Léonard Rosenthal, stanza 66, from Au Royaume de la Perle).

In 1919, Léonard Rosenthal (1872-1955), an internationally respected and acclaimed dealer of oriental pearls and precious stones based in Paris,  published  Au Royaume de la Perle (Paris: Payot), a 208-page 16mo volume with decorations by Claude Denis.

 

In 1920, Rosenthal commissioned Edmund Dulac (1882-1955) to provide illustrations for a large quarto deluxe edition. Published in Paris by H. Piazza, it was immediately translated into English and published in London by Nisbet & Co.

With Dulac's illustrations, the book was transformed into a pearl born in the head of a magnificent artist.

 

“His plates, truly genius, do much to bring a fanciful touch to an otherwise stark exposition on pearls” (Hughey).

Ann Hughey, who compiled the standard bibliography of books illustrated by Dulac, is a bit harsh regarding Rosenthal's text. Within the "stark exposition" lies a fascinating chapter devoted to oriental pearl legends and mythology, i.e:

The cloud pearl never reaches the earth; the gods seize it whilst it is still in the air. It is like the sun, a dazzling sphere the rays from which fill the whole of space (Stanza 67).

It eclipses the light of fire, of the moon, of the lunar constellations, of the stars and all the planets. As the sun is to the day, so is this pearl to the darkness of the night (Stanza 68).

The earth, adorned by the four seas, the waters of which glitter with the lustre of many jewels, the whole earth covered with gold, would scarcely attain to the value of this one pearl: such is my belief (Stanza 69).

He who, by reason of an act of virtue of the highest degree, becomes possessed of it, will remain without a rival in the whole world, so long as he retains it (Stanza 70).

“Edmund Dulac adapts his talents to the spirit of that which he is to render…In…The Kingdom and the Pearl he used the conventional Persian style without perspective, rich in decorative forms and jewelplike colours, bring out the beauty of minute things by the use of colour and graceful line” (The International Studio, Sept. 1926).

Dulac “at his best…fantastically Persian” (The Times).

In 1904, when Edmund Dulac, age 22, landed in London after winning prizes for his work awarded by the Ecole des Beaux Arts he hit the ground running,   was an immediate success, and was soon the most acclaimed book illustrator of his generation at a time when book illustration had entered its golden age. His only rival was Arthur Rackham.

By 1913, his romanticism-in-blue period had evolved into a vivid, highly exotic and idealized vision of the Orient, Persian art miniatures a major influence upon him. First budding in his illustrations for Stories from the Arabian Nights (1907) and Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1909), his new orientalist style was in full flower with Princess Badura: A Tale From the Arabian Nights (1913); Sinbad the Sailor and Other Stories From the Arabian Nights (1914).

This was the elegant oriental exoticism that Rosenthal had in mind when he imagined what Au Royaume de la Perle might look like if richly illustrated. Dulac's was exactly the fantasy he saw in his head, the romance of  his beloved pearls made manifest in art, each plate a jewel.

He who, by reason of an act of virtue of the highest degree, becomes possessed of a copy of this book will remain without a rival in the whole world, so long as he retains it. Yet post it for sale on Ebay and you shall be accursed for all eternity.

A copy that recently passed through my hands had been rebound by Bayntun-Riviére in full black morocco with a royal crown centerpiece ornamented by twenty-six tiny, set-in cultured pearls. A simple strand of pearls against black remains classically elegant fashion. Women of taste who come across this copy will wonder whether to read the book or wear it.

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[DULAC, Edmund, illustrator]. ROSENTHAL, Léonard. The Kingdom of the Pearl. London: Nisbet & Co., [n.d., 1920].

Limited to 675 copies, this being copy no. 44. Large quarto (11 x 8 ¾ in; 279 x 224 mm). xii, 150, [1], [1, printer’s slug] pp. Ten tipped-in color plates.

Bound ca. 1960 by Bayntun (Riviére) in full black crushed levant morocco with single gilt fillet border enclosing a frame of rolled gilt dots with corner ornaments within which is a double-fillet panel housing a royal crown centerpiece in gilt which is set with twenty-six tiny pearls. Raised bands with gilt rolls. Compartments with gilt-ruled frames enclosing gilt ornaments. Gilt-rolled edges. Broad turn-ins with gilt-rolls. Top edge gilt. Cockerell endpapers.

Hughey 54c.
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Images courtesy of David Brass Rare Books, with our thanks.
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Of related interest:

The ABC Book of Edmund Dulac.
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Superstar 1st Edition of Ulysses Estimated $450,000-$500,000 at Sotheby's

by Stephen J. Gertz

No. 24 of 100 signed and numbered copies on Dutch hand-made paper.
Estimate: $450,000-$500,000.

A jaw-dropping and superb Publisher's Presentation Copy of the first edition of James Joyce's Ulysses (1922), number 24 of 100 signed and numbered  copies by the author printed on Dutch hand-made paper, is the superstar at Sotheby's-New York Library of an English Bibliophile Sale Part II, October 20, 2011. A volume from rare book heaven and one of a handful of incredible copies of Joyce first editions in  this auction, it is estimated to sell for $450,000-$500,000.

 

Tipped-in to this copy is a note-card from Sylvia Beach (1887-1962), key patron, champion, publisher of Joyce, and proprietor of Shakespeare and Company, her famed Paris book shop. The presentation is to St. Louis millionaire and art and book collector, Tudor Wilkinson, who, in 1923, married  Kathleen Marie Rose aka Dolores Rose, the most famous of all Ziegfeld Girls, and settled in Paris.

James Joyce and Sylvia Beach, in her Paris office, 1921.

This gift to Tudor Wilkinson was in gratitude for his efforts to gain her release from  the Nazis. In the late winter of 1941 Beach closed Shakespeare and Company after two threatening visits from German occupation authorities. In August 1942 she was arrested and remained interned until February 1943, the date of her note with this copy to Wilkinson, her release largely the result of Wilkinson's letter on her behalf to Jacques Benoist-Mechin, an ardent fan of Joyce who had been a member of Beach's lending library (joining in 1919) but who, at this point, was a secretary at Vichy headquarters.

As if the Beach presentation note wasn't not enough,  a page from the original typescript with corrections, annotations and revisions in Joyce's hand is also tipped-in to this copy.  The typescript leaf is page three from "The Wandering Rocks" episode in the book,  which Beach inscribed, "Page of original manuscript of Ulysseys with manuscript / additions by the author." 

An original print of the black and white photograph above, inscribed by Beach "Shakespeare and Company in the rue Dupuytren 1921 with James Joyce..." is also included with this copy.

In 2002, the copy of Long Island, NY commercial real estate developer, book collector, and dog breeder Roger Rechler, inscribed by Joyce to Kenry Kaeser, sold at Christie's-NY for $410,000. The copy under notice, with its powerful association to, and presentation by, the book's famous publisher and a dark episode in her life, the accompanying note, and leaf of original typecript with Joyce's autograph annotations and her inscription should easily reap the low and will likely exceed the high estimate. Despite the recession, the big money for big, trophy first editions remains healthy.

Estimate: $150,000- $200,000.

Also offered at this auction is the fine H. Bradely Martin copy in the very rare dust jacket of the first published edition of Joyce's Dubliners (1914), one of only 746 bound copies. A review copy with printed slip requesting that no reviews appear before June 15, it is estimated to sell for $150,000-$200,000. This copy last sold at Sotheby's-NY on April 30, 1990 for $14,000. The inscribed Rechler Copy in dust jacket sold at Christie's-NY on October 11, 2002 for $230,000. The inscribed Kain Copy without dust jacket sold at Sotheby's in 2006 for $137,200.

This collection of short stories was originally planned for publication in 1906. But the printers objected to certain passages and refused to print it for the publisher, Grant Richards, who abandoned the book. In 1910, publisher Maunsel printed an edition of 1000 copies. After Joyce refused to make emendations to the text the entire edition was destroyed. Joyce then added two important stories, "A Little Cloud," and "The Dead," to the collection, and in June 1914 Richards - this time using different, less opinionated printers - published the book.

Estimate: $40,000-$50,000.

The final big Joyce book in The Library of an English Bibliophile Sale Part II is a fine copy in the rare dust jacket of the first edition of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce's great autobiographical novel published in New York, on December 29, 1916. The first British  edition appeared a month and a half later, on February 12, 1917, using the American sheets because the English printers refused to accept the responsibility for printing it.

Rejoice in Joyce.

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JOYCE, James. Ulysses. Paris: Shakespeare and Company, 1922. First edition, No. 24 of 100 copies signed and numbered by the author, on Dutch hand-made paper, of a total edition of 1000 copies including 150 numbered-only copies on vergé d'arches paper and 750 numbered-only copies on plain paper. Quarto. Printed wrappers. This copy unopened. 

The story of Wilkinson and Beach can be found in a series of unpublished letters by Wilkinson to the poet and bookseller Adrienne Monnier held at the Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas.

Slocum and Calhoon A17. Connolly, The Modern Movement 42.

JOYCE, James. Dubliners. London: Grant Richards Ltd., [1914]. First edition., one of only 746  bound copies. Octavo. Publisher's maroon cloth. Dust jacket. Bookplate of H. Bradley Martin.

Slocum and Calhoon A8.

JOYCE, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. New York: B.W. Huebsch, 1916. First edition, preceding the first U.K. edition. Octavo. Publisher's cloth. Dust jacket.

Slocum and Calhoon A11. Connolly, The Modern Movement 26.

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All images courtesy of Sotheby's, with our thanks.

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Booktryst has recently covered other great offerings at Sotheby's upcoming Library of an English Bibliophile Sale Part II, which we encourage you to read:

• The $175,000 Dust Jacket Comes to Auction.

• Scarce Poe First Editions Exhumed From Premature Burial at Sotheby's Sale.

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