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The organisers of the event said visitors can look forward to some exceptional highlights, such as a beautifully illustrated art nouveau book from 1900 – Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s Der Kaiser und die Hexe, of which only 200 copies were printed. It will be on Michael Schleicher’s stand and has an asking price of £7,680.
Peter Harrington Rare Books will be showing three stunning bindings by Cedric Chivers, who patented his ‘vellucent’ bindings in 1898. A particularly attractive edition of Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene, pictured
and decorated by Louis Fairfax-Muckley from 1897 (£12,500); an 1893 Aubrey Beardsley illustrated Morte D’arthur by Sir Thomas Malory (£12,000) and a copy of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám translated by Edward Fitzgerald, this one published in 1903, finely bound by Cedric Chivers after an art nouveau design by the illustrator Herbert Granville Fell (£9,500).
Camden Lock Books is known for offering a wide range of miniature books including a beautiful English Bijou Almanac for 1841, poetically illustrated by the Hon. Mrs Norton, of which only 14 seem to be in existence around the world (£1,950).
Paul Foster is bringing a book sometimes described as the first interactive book published, but certainly the first to use movable tabs. Le Livre Joujou by M. Bres (third issue from circa 1875) has 13 hand-coloured illustrated plates with pull tabs to change the image.
Beaux Books will be exhibiting first edition copies of all the books authored by Cecil Beaton during his lifetime and will also display several books with original jackets by Beaton, alongside posters and ephemera.
Among the artists’ books at Shapero Rare Books will be a superb example of Juste Présent, a collection of Tristan Tzara’s poems with illustrations by his long-term collaborator and friend Sonia Delaunay. Published in 1961, a period where Delaunay returned to the styles of the early years of her career, signed by the author and artist, including an additional signed etching hand-coloured in gouache by the artist in the original lithographed chemise and slipcase (£22,500).
