Feb 23, 2012 - Sale 2269

Sale 2269 - Lot 38

Price Realized: $ 4,320
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(BIRD & BULL PRESS.) Schanilec, Gaylord. Original Wood Engravings for Five Short Stories by Marcel Aymé [cover title]. Two sets of the 10 original woodcut plates used to create Schanilec's illustrations for the book published in 1994. One set shows preliminary cuts on unfinished polished wood blocks; the other set contains the finished designs as used on press. Blocks measure 177x127mm; 7x5 inches; laid into custom red cloth tray cases within a large clamshell box, a few bumps and nicks along edges as case is extremely heavy. Newtown, 1994

Additional Details

unique set of original carved woodblocks used to illustrate the production of "five short stories" by marcel aymé as printed by the Bird & Bull Press in 1994 in a total edition of 150 copies (see previous lot). Included with the blocks are a heavily thumb-inked set of two printed images, marked "2/20/99 Tip-ins - For Bibliog [sic]. (Aymé)" in red ink , with marks over the images and with portions of the images cut and pasted over tissue paper, most likely by printer Henry Morris, but could be Sidney Berger as well. Another stapled suite of the same two illustrations, printed in progressive proofs (6 sheets containing 12 images) with a penned note by the printer stating that they are proofs of the final run of the blocks and are meant to be tipped-in with his commentary in the forthcoming Bird & Bull Bibliography (used in a violet grey tint unlike Schanilec's original blue-grey). An interesting souvenir of printing history. The volume to which he refers is "Forty-four years of Bird & Bull: A Bibliography, 1958-2002. Compiled by Sidney E. Berger with a Foreword & Commentary by Henry Morris. Newtown, 2003.