Rare & Beautiful: Design Book Finds

The 1926 alphabet book Abeceda is “a favorite of mine because it embraces several of the avant-garde disciplines into one visionary document,” says Optos Books proprietor Polly Dufresne.

Dufresne describes the book as a “landmark achievement in European modernism. She quotes from the article “Staging Language: Milĉa Mayerová and the Czech book Alphabet” by Matthew S. Witkovsky (The Art Bulletin, March 2004): “Its frequent reproduction in exhibition catalogues and scholarly articles has made it a key symbol of Devetsil (1920–c. 1931), the Czech artists’ collective within whose ranks the book was conceived. The book consists of a series of rhymed quatrains by Devetsil poet Vitezslav Nezval, titled and ordered according to the letters of the Latin alphabet. Facing each set of verses is a Constructivist photomontage layout by Karel Teige, a painter turned typographer who was also Devetsil’s spokesperson and leading theorist. Teige developed his graphic design around photographs of dancer and choreographer Milada (Milca) Mayerova, a recent affiliate of the group, who had performed a stage version of ‘Alphabet’ to accompany a recitation of the poem at a theatrical evening in Nezval’s honor in April 1926.”

Les Affiches Originales des Maitres de l’Ecole de Paris, from 1959, is notable for, among many reasons, “its exuberant cover design, done specially for the publication by Matisse (to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Paris printer Fernand Mourlot’s renowned studio) and the 102 lithographed posters inside, which represent some of the finest examples of early to mid-20th-century French poster designs (including Matisse’s “Jazz,” but also many lesser-known posters produced purely as advertising) by seven of the foremost modern French artists, painstakingly reproduced by yet again another master—Fernand Mourlot.”

According to AtelierVault, Mourlot associated in art history with the resurgence of the lithograph, printed work by Picasso, Léger, Matisse, Marino Marini, André Derain, and Miró, among others. “The results of his collaboration with these artists were so successful that more and more galleries chose Mourlot to print posters for their exhibits, known as Affiches de Peintres Lithographiées. By the mid-twentieth century, the reputation of Mourlot Frères was so respected that the words “Imprimée par Mourlot” were enough to guarantee the finest-quality lithographs and demand a premium collector or auction value, worldwide.”

Cover of Buntpapier by Albert Haemmerle, 1961. Courtesy of Carnegie Hill Books

Carnegie Hill Books, operated by Ann Brockschmidt, offers the remarkable Buntpapier by Albert Haemmerle, published in 1961 in Munich, Germany. Brockschmidt writes that the book, “a history of decorated and marbled paper with 155 illustrations and 18 actual paper specimens tipped-in, includes descriptions of 664 examples of decorated paper. It was issued on the 150th anniversary of the founding of Buntpapierfabrik AG Aschaffenburg.”

Brockschmidt also offers a work in a series showcasing interior design, Intérieurs II, by Léon Moussinac, which features interiors by seven French art deco designers/firms, including Dominique, Maurice Dufrene, Rene Gabriel, Andre Groult, Jobert et Petit (DIM), R. Mallet-Stevens, and Fernard Nathan. The book was published in Paris in 1924 by Albert Lévy.

F.A. Bernett via Erika Hapke chose to highlight a book of rare urban architectural photographs and a vintage fashion design magazine collection. The four-volume Journal des Dames et des Modes comprises “comprising a complete run of the elegant Parisian fashion journal [published 1912–14] documenting the mode of dress, literary and artistic trends, and lifestyle of high-society at the end of the belle époque, with texts and illustrations by highly regarded designers, illustrators and authors, including Georges Barbier, Jean Cocteau, Paul Reboux, Henri Duvernois, Marcel Boulanger, Charles Martin, Paul Iribe, Fernand Siméon, Bernard Boutet de Monvel, H. Robert Dammy, et. al., accompanied by 1–5 hand-colored pochoir plates per issue [186 total]. This luxury magazine appeared three times a month during the final years of the pre-war golden era and provides a remarkable visual account of the fashion and leisure activities of upper-class women, men and children.”

A Remarkable Collection of 92 Oversize Original Photographic Prints of Venice, also from F.A. Bernett, and published between 1870 and 1880, is “a spectacular compendium of early, large and gorgeously printed images showing iconic buildings, street views, details, sculptures and paintings in Venice as they existed ca. 1870–1880. Carlo Naya (1816–1882) was a successful photographer based in Venice and is well known as one of the leading early figures in the photographic documentation of European cities. The photographs offered here—heavily weighted towards architectural views—are for the most part beautifully composed and notably well-preserved, with deeply saturated darks and expansive lights. A remarkable collection, featuring not only beautiful individual prints but an amazing depth of imagery, essential for an art-historical study of Venice.”

Cover and glassine wrapper of Learning from Las Vegas, first edition, by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour; designed by Muriel Cooper, 1972. Courtesy of Modernism 101

Modernism 101, which specializes in modern architects, typographers, photographers, and industrial designers “from Aalto to Zwart. . . in all their published glory,” selected typography legend Herbert Bayer’s 1953 World Geographic Atlas and the controversial (see “Still Learning from Denise Scott Brown”) 1972 first edition of architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour’s Learning from Las Vegas. Randall Ross writes: “Bayer and his design team spent five years circling the globe researching and assembling the World Geographic Atlas, as a 25th-anniversary promotional keepsake for the Container Corporation of America. The gilt-stamped monkscloth exterior and the elaborate ten-color printing transcend the stated pedagogical intentions to perfectly represent America’s postwar dominance.

Twenty years later, Learning from Las Vegas emerged from the creative tug-of-war between authors Venturi, Scott Brown, and Izenour and MIT Press Design Director Muriel Cooper. The resultant edition was the seldom-seen masterpiece of form and content that Ellen Lupton has called “‘the New Testament of design theory.’”