?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 40,000 - $ 50,000
BEAUTIFUL COPY OF CATS WARHOL, ANDY. 25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy. 18 lithographs (including cover) by Warhol on Arches paper, vividly hand-colored using Dr. Martin's ink washes, with calligraphy after Warhol's mother, Julia Warhola. Small 4to, 228x150 mm; 9x5 7/8 inches, cream-colored leatherette with hand-colored lithographed label laid down on front cover, marked "Blair" in Warhol's hand, lower left, and with usual light toning and wrinkling; common occasional very light creasing, wrinkling, or usual residual ink on versos (not affecting plate rectos); with laid-in advertisement for warhol's golden slipper show, 21 January 1957 at the Bodley Gallery in New York. [New York]: Printed by Seymour Berlin, [1954]
signed and numbered 46 of 190 copies by warhol. This copy marked simply "Blair" on front cover label by Warhol. The books were given by Warhol as Christmas keepsakes to his friends and clients and the inscriptions, as in this copy, are located on the lower left corner of the front cover label. While the colophon lists 190 copies, it is believed that fewer than 150 were produced. Warhol held "coloring parties" at which his friends would help color the Sam cats; a method he employed to complete his projects throughout his career. Although there is no text in the book, the colophon lists the author as Charles Lisanby, who supplied the title. The calligraphy for the book was done by Warhol's mother, who left the "d" off the word "Name" in the title but the artist chose to let it stand. Warhol and his mother, passionate cat lovers, named all of their cats Sam, except for one named Hester. Another quirk is that the book actually contains only 16 cats named Sam. Feldman & Schellman IV.52A-68A.
