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JG Home Foreword Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Illustrated catalogue

001 - MM1
Prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France
Sonia Delaunay (illustrated by)
Blaise Cendrars (poem by)
Miguet Paris (bookbinding by)
Editions des Hommes Nouveaux; Paris, France
1913
Size: see notes
unpaged
Edition: #9/36 on Japon
Inscription: Signed by the poet 1953
Notes: Four flat, unbound and unfolded sheets with pochoir illumination by Delaunay, 572 x 384 mm. The parchment binding, hand-painted in oil by Sonia Delaunay, remains unfolded, 225 x 192 mm. Plus the original and exceedingly rare prospectus announcement, coloured in pochoir, 94 x 340 mm. With three original watercolours on vellum by Delaunay and the corrected proofs of the text on two sheets. Laid in a morocco binding in a matching slipcase by J. P. Miguet, Paris. The title in gold on the spine of the slipcase. Case size: 593 x 435mm. Slipcase size: 604 x 438mm. Both measurements taking the bulge in the spine (which extrudes from the slipcase) into account. Original watercolours on vellum, numbered 1-3. [209 x 265 mm laid down on paper 243 x 268mm]. Unique and spectacular copy of this landmark in the history of twentieth century art and poetry. This particular set was never cut and pasted together; it remains in its original, large, loose printed sheet format. It was never folded and bound in the Delaunay binding. The Delaunay colours are preserved in the brightest tones. It has none of the cracks and folds through the imagery and text which mars nearly all copies of the work. The Delaunay binding is an original oil painting in its own right and is preserved in perfect condition in its rare, unfolded format. The prospectus is a sublime work of Delaunay's pochoir art by itself. It is recorded that if all of the 150 copies were placed end to end, (normal copies of the work being cut, pasted and constructed in a long single sheet of almost two meters and folded in accordion style into the hand-painted parchment binding), when unfolded to their full length, they would equal the exact height of the Eiffel tower, a homage from Sonia to her husband Robert and to his most famous painting, Le Tour Eiffel. The printed justification announces that a total of 150 copies were to be printed; however, it is documented that only 62 copies were actually assembled. This is number 9 of the copies on japon. Antoine Coron, Keeper of Rare Books at the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, who has been compiling a census of copies of La Prose du Transsibérien, knows of no other unfolded and uncut copies on japon.









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