Richard Neylon

Modern, moderne and modernism

>> = run your mouse over the picture

 

>> Advertising. [Katsumi Tsuji]. [in Japanese] Kessaku kokoku zuan daishusei okusuke. [more or less The Best Advertising ...]. Tokyo, Kobunsha 1934. Large octavo publisher's illustrated cloth, illustrated slipcase (rubbed and chipped but perfectly decent); 320pp with hundreds of illustrations (eight pages in colour, the rest in varying monochromes). Minor signs of use, a pretty good copy. Au$400

A splendid compendium of new advertising layout and typography; there is a quantity of examples from Europe and America but fortunately the bulk is Japanese. Both the book cover and the slipcase are pretty smart, the slipcase in particular, modern and dramatic. The 'AD' design on the cover of the book is a direct link to the Art Directors Club, presumably this is a forerunner of the current Tokyo Art Directors Club.

ALOIS, Roberto. Architettura Funeraria Moderna. Architettura monumentale, crematori, cimiteri, edicole, capelle, tome, stele, decorazione. Milan 1948. quarto printed wrapp (spine a bit chipped); lxxiii,[3],253,[3]pp, numerous photos, plans. Au$250

Second edition revised and enlarged. A good historical review by A. Cassi Ramelli precedes the survey of modern work throughout Europe (with some outsiders including Wright's mortuary in San Francisco and a projected mausoleum for Attaturk in Ankara). The bulk though is Italian, particularly Milanese. It extends to such things as chalices by Puiforcat, tabernacles and even a few bindings for missals.

<< Architecture. [in Japanese]. Atarashiki Doitsu No Kenchiku. [New German Architecture]. n.p. [Tokyo?] [191-?]. Folio, loose as issued; in a scruffy cloth portfolio;  plate list on four leaves and 100 plates (six are mounted colour renderings). Some minor flaws, the text leaves are creased, spots or smudges and signs of use here and there but a perfectly respectable copy inside. I believe this should be in a printed portfolio but this copy is otherwise complete as issued. Au$225  

An indicative survey of new civil, commercial and domestic buildings and projects in Germany and nearby countries showing how and where the Japanese kept their eyes open and selected models for their own progression into the modern western world. Jugendstijl (or Hungarian Secession in the case of the Hungaria Furdo, the baths in Budapest now in ruins, if not gone altogether) on the whole - it most likely dates from the early teens, the latest buildings date to 1910 and the only reference I can find (Waseda University Library) is unhelpful with details. Most of the collotype plates are photographs, with a scattering of renderings, and in many cases more than one plate, sometimes up to six, is devoted to a building and its interiors.

Architecture. [in Japanese] Kenchiku gurafu 1932 - 1933 [Architectural Graph]. Tokyo, Dec 1933. Quarto publisher's printed wrapper; [2],144pp, numerous photo ills and plans. Au$100

A good annual survey of all that is new around the world, drawn from architectural journals in Russia, Europe, England and America. In most cases the building, location, architect and source are given in Japanese and English - useful for the non-Japanese reader. It is divided into sections by nationality or building types, with a section on construction details and new materials at the end.

> [Baby Prams and Furniture]. Compagnie Lyonnaise de Construction de Voitues et Jouets d'Enfants; Lyon. Les Voitures d'Enfants - Les Meuble Lacques. Album No.1. The company 1933. oblong quarto printed wrapp; 68pp, illustrated throughout. Au$300

Art deco prams - weighty looking landaus and some smaller 'cabs' in a range of high 'morderne' styles. Following these are some pushers in metal, some elaborate 'charrettes' in timber, some cribs and a series of decorated lacquer suites of children's furniture. These last tend to be a bit girly and indeed mostly have girl's names - 'Chambre Colette', 'Chambre Nicole', and so on.

< BENEDICTUS, [Edouard]. Relais 1930. Paris, Vincent Freal [1930]. Largish folio, loose as issued in publisher's colour illustrated portfolio (boards somewhat marked and smudged, scrapes on the back board); [4]pp and 15 pochoir plates by Saude with 42 motifs. One plate with some minor adhesion evident in the black border. Au$2,500

One of the more spectacular of the deco pochoir portfolios of design (and they are all pretty spectacular); this was Benedictus' last work - it was issued posthumously. While researching him it came as news to me that Benedictus was the inventor of laminated, or safety, glass.

YERBURY, F.R. Modern Dutch Buildings. London, Benn 1931. Quarto publisher's cloth and dustwrapper (piece gone from the top of the spine of the dustwrapper; viiipp and 100 plates: photo illustrations, plans and measured drawings. Quite a good copy. Au$175

A good survey of the latest in Dutch modernism, photographed by Yerbury. There weren't many such English books despite the influence that these architects wielded throughout the English speaking world: Berlage, Dudok, de Klerk, Duiker, Wijdeveld, Staal, Oud, Limburg, Kuipers and others.

>> BOMBERG, David. Russian Ballet. London, The Bomb Shop 1919. Octavo (220x140mm) original printed white wrapper; [16]pp with six colour lithographs and lithographed text. Wrapper a bit spotted, a crease in the very corner of the first four leaves and a few odd little indentations in the paper (but no damage); a pretty good copy. Au$8,500

Very much a home made book, lithographed by Bomberg himself and, according to legend, stitched together by his wife; it appears that about 100 copies were produced. After a stymied attempt to sell them at the ballet, 'David took his hundred unsold copies to Henderson's Bomb Shop in Charing Cross Road, where they were put out for sale and about ten were sold and then Henderson withdrew them as unsaleable, and they remained in the Bomb Shop until David renewed his acquaintance with Mendelson, who was willing to take the lot off David's hands at a price' (a letter from Bomberg's first wife Alice Mayes). Mendelson, who had already financed the project, had them on his hands until the early sixties when he sold a few copies, 'only then to have the majority of his copies destroyed in a fire' (Tate Gallery).

CENDRARS, Blaise. Panama or the Adventures of My Seven Uncles .. translated .. and illustrated by John Dos Passos. NY, Harper 1931. quarto illustrated wrapp; coloured ills by Dos Passos. A few light spots but a very good, unopened copy. Au$185

Exhibition - Brussels 1910. La Decoration Interieure Allemande et les metiers d'art a l'Exposition de Bruxelles 1910. Stuttgart, Hoffmann [1910]. Quarto publisher's decorated wrapper (spine ends a little worn); [12]pp, 10 colour plates, four mounted colour linoleum designs on two pages and 128 photo plates. Au$275

As promised this is mostly devoted to interiors (by Bruno Paul, Niemeyer, Behrens, Riemerschmid and others) but there are some buildings (by von Seidl - the Pavilion itself, Behrens, etc), the lino patterns (Behrens and Paul) and some porcelain and metal work - all usefully captioned in French and English.

<< Exhibition - Tokyo 1907. The Tokyo Industrial Exhibition, an extra number of the 'Teikoku Gaho', an illustrated monthly magazine. Tokyo, Fuzanbo [1907]. Quarto publisher's colour illustrated wrapper (a bit used); profusely illustrated throughout, mostly photo illustrations, a few folding, two folding maps, some colour lithographs, including a folding plate of caricatures and an odd depiction of the 'patron goddis of industry'; interspersed sections of advertising on red paper. Au$500

A substantial and very useful round-up of the exhibition; there is a summary in English and the illustrations have English captions. The 1907 exhibition was conceived as an international exhibition but this ambition fizzled due to lack of enthusiasm, if not nerve, on the part of officialdom. Nonetheless this was big stuff, expansive in its inclusion of technology, culture, the arts and popular entertainment - introducing not one but two ferris wheels to Tokyo. And it did pretty good business, apparently atttracting some six or seven million visitors.

CLOUZOT, H. La Ferronnerie Moderne. Paris, Moreau [c1925]. folio, loose as issued in printed boards; [8]pp & numerous photo ills on 36 plates. A couple of minor signs of use, rather good. Au$450

The first series (two more followed a couple of years later), this devoted to the architectural and decorative ironwork at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs.

The perfection of the dustcoat? - what else did England design?

FARR, Michael. Design in British Industry, a mid-century survey .. foreword [&c] by Nicholas Pevsner. Cambridge Univ Press 1955. large octavo publisher's cloth; xxxviii,333pp, numerous photo ills on 88 plates. Au$100

An excellent survey of industrial design.

> TAUT, Bruno. Alpine Architektur [and in Japanese] Arupusu Kenchiku. Hagen, Folkwang 1919 [ie Tokyo, 1944]. Folio (35cm high) publisher's cloth and dustwrapper (the cloth discoloured and a touch nibbled around the top); title page in Japanese and 37 leaves consisting of 29 monochrome mounted leaves (title and contents leaves, five section titles and 22 plates) and eight colour lithographs. Some smudging and browning but a rather good copy; with the illustrated booklet containing the Japanese translation. Au$2,500

A curious object this; it forms part of the collected works of Taut in Japanese (Tauto Zenshu) but while his other works were translated and collected into sensible octavo volumes (five I believe), in this case the original format has been followed faithfully, with the translation provided as a booklet inserted at the end. In the last twenty years or so I have seen a couple of copies of this Japanese edition offered for sale as a re-issue of the original sheets and I was happy to jump to the same conclusion after incomplete investigation. However, a bibliographic crime, if not fraud, has been adverted thanks to the generous diligence of a librarian at the Art Institute of Chicago (the only library I could trace that had both versions) who has, twice, compared them side by side and sent me a list of seven plates that vary in image size; the claim that these are the same sheets collapses.
This remains a puzzle still, this is no photographic process reprint; the colour plates are proper colour lithographs of good quality. While there's no doubt that elaborate and fine printing could and was done during war time it still doesn't make sense. The illustrated booklet with translation is what we expect from wartime printing - why not do a better job with that? So when were these plates produced? Were they prepared by Taut when he was in Japan? The whole business of a collected edition of Taut at this time becomes something of a circular puzzle. Japan's ties with Germany are clear enough and the Japanese showed their appreciation of radical German modernists, or expressionists, like Taut and Mendelsohn pretty much even before Germany did, and Taut had spent years in Japan - but he was part of the exodus from Germany in 1933 and had died in Turkey in 1938.
Visionary, the term mostly used to describe this book, is often just another word for lunatic and Taut's utopian scheme for these monumental crystal structures marching across the mountain ranges of the world is captivatingly nutty. If this were to be judged on its own we would have just another eccentric, if endearing, relic of a dead end dream, but, in place in a cohesive group of theoretical writing and extensive design, both built and unbullt, possible and impossible, this book wielded influence beyond its limited circulation in advancing the notion that, for the architect, principle, theory and social concern were as important as tools as a T-square.

<< EDWARDS, Edward B. Dynamarhythmic Design. A book of structural pattern. N.Y. Century 1932. Small quarto, very good in publisher's cloth with a dusty and chipped dustwrapper;  xx,122pp, 28 plates, numerous illustrations through the text. Au$200

First edition, and fairly uncommon, particularly with dustwrapper. Using the theories of Jay Hambidge, drawn from his perceived rediscovery of the Egyptian and Greek system of symmetry, Edwards has produced 'one of the most attractive and ingenious studies of geometric ornament [and] one of the few examples of European geometric design to rival Islamic work in complexity'. (Durant: Ornament).

[Film]. Close Up. A bound volume with eight issues of Close Up between vol. II No.6 and vol. V No.1. Territet (Switzerland), Pool June 1928 to July 1929. Octavo contemporary boards (a very plain binding); photo illustrations throughout. Front wrappers and advertisements all bound in. Au$250

An appealing if obscure gathering of this first modernist English attempt at a magazine treating film as art - it belonged to H.V. Ringsted who was publishing essays on film in the Danish journal Kritisk Revy in 1928 (all I can discover about Ringsted). Close Up was the work of a triad: Kenneth MacPherson, Bryher (Winifred Ellerman) and HD (Hilda Dolittle), though only the first two appear on the bannerhead, and gathered a range of contributors that run from stellar (Eisenstein) to the curious (stream of consciousness novelist Dorothy Richardson). Now classed as an avant garde small magazine much of their pages were filled with the reactionary battle against sound - the talkies were the destruction of the language of film (not to say just trash: 'Al Jolson has yet to make a greater singing fool of himself. Dolores Costello has yet to be filtered to something at least as quiet as a saw-mill'). Still, all new cinematic ventures, from all over the world, were at least considered if not praised and, bravely, with no real success, Close Up also battled the censors. It ran, apparently becoming more sporadic towards the end, from 1927 to 1933.

>> FLEURY, Gaston. Nouveaux Hotels Particuliers a Paris, d'apres les types les plus recent. Paris, Massin [192-]. folio, loose as issued in printed boards (neatly rebacked); [4]pp & 36 plates. A little browning around the edges, pretty good. Au$350

Twenty recent buildings, each with a photo of the facade and floor plans. A hive of activity in the west of Paris - this records seven new houses in rue Jasmin and rue Raffet in the 16th (close to sacred sites of Guimard and Corbusier); seven in Neuilly and others in the 7th. Architects include Abraham & Sinoir and Raimbert & Papet.

< FRILING, Hermann. Entwurfe fur Metallarbeiten. Dresden, Gerhard Kuhtmann [c1900]. folio, loose as issued, in a modern half cloth portfolio with printed label on the front; title leaf and numerous designs on 26 monochrome plates. Au$850

Rare and rather good: jugendstil designs in metal ranging from handles to electric lights and most are very stylish. Friling worked in about every media, from textiles to murals to glass, but metal seemed something of a specialty; he was one of the designers for Osiris during its fairly brief life (1899-1909). He published a few pattern books but this one seems particularly elusive, I couldn't track down a copy in any of the expected libraries.

FUERST, Walter Rene & Samuel J. HUME. XXth Century Stage Decoration. London, Knopf 1928. Two volumes quarto publisher's pattern cloth. I: text. II: plates; 7 colour, 387 b/w ills, other ills through the text. Extra list of plates in pocket. Au$400

> [Furniture]. Thonet Freres. Paris 14, 16, Bd. Poissonniere, &c [c1928]. oblong quarto by size; 2pp & numerous ills on 11 leaves printed on rectos. Price list for March 1928 inserted. Au$275

An unfamiliar side of Thonet: their more substantial pieces, sofas and arms chairs in leather and upholstered chairs of all types.

< GARNIER, Tony. Une Cite Industrielle. Etude pour la construction des villes. Paris, Vincent [1918]. 2 volumes oblong folio, loose as issued in portfolios of cloth & marbled boards (a clever reconstruction using the original printed labels and spines); 164 plates (some folding a few quite big; 14 colour). Au$5,000

First edition of this quite strange work; it gets more curious the more one looks at it. For all that's been said about Garnier and modernism - his use of materials like reinforced concrete, of technology, his division of function - his houses are not so much protomodernist as the last classical Roman villas. In fact he scatters them with archaeological debris, crowning one small villa with the Winged Victory of Samothrace. He is a socialist utopian in the old fashioned sense but some of his wiry knickerbockered inhabitants (the men are knickerbockered bicyclists the women neoclassical) seem really to be renaissance Italian dandies. Are the rest Alfred Jarry? His graphic style owes more to etching and jugendstil painting than architectural rendering (he had after all pretty well finished all this by 1904) but describes industrial mechanisms on a monumental scale. The flaws in his city are often trivial  (like his 24 hour clock), the pre-doomed communal living is less trivial perhaps but his successes are now our problems. And what was his connection with Walter Burley Griffin?

GROPIUS, Walter. The New Architecture and the Bauhaus. Faber 1955 [1935]. octavo, dustwrapper; 112pp, 16 photo plates. Endpaper browned but an excellent copy in dustwrapper. Au$100

Second impression.

GIEDION, S. Walter Gropius. Work and Teamwork. London, Architectural Press 1954. small quarto dustwrapper (this a bit chipped); 250pp, numerous photo ills, plans. Endpapers rather spotted. Au$150

Pretty uncommon in dustwrapper.

<< [in Japanese] Gendai Ryoki Sentan Kuzan [more or less: Illustrations of the bizarre in the contemporary avant-garde]. Tokyo, Shinchosa 1931. large octavo publisher's illustrated cloth blocked in silver & gilt (edges a bit rubbed) in colour illustrated slipcase (edges a bit worn); [8],246,47pp; colour plates and hundreds of photo ills, many full page. Some browning at the end. Au$450

Fairly wonderful and very Japanese. The world has been ransacked for images but there is a philosophy and method behind this which makes it more than just sensational or a freak show. Exactly what it is I'm not sure. The book is organised into sections: the erotic; the grotesque; nonsense; revue; strange perspective; sport; the avant-garde; the pose; novelty. While it's clear why many of these pictures are so organised it is sometimes puzzling - particularly for those of us who can't read the accompanying text. The human predominates - women in scanties or less  never need much excuse to be featured, but I suspect that it is not so much the naked body that is found grotesque here but the extremes to which the natural can be distorted for art and entertainment. If the book stopped there it could be seen as just another example of the ero-guro-nansensu (erotic grotesque nonsense) culture of bourgeois Japan at the time - indeed current scholars have plundered this book for images when discussing ero-guro-nansensu - but the wider, more critical, stance here can be conveyed by one colour picture: seemingly a typical painting in kitschy tourist brochure style it depicts a classical samurai and sword scene in a small village - nothing unsual until we notice the film crew in the right corner.

>> VERNEUIL, M.P. Etude de la Plante. Son application aux industries d'art .. pochoir, papier peint etoffes, ceramique .. Paris, Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts [c1900]. folio, publisherÕs stencilled cloth; 326pp, with some 379 hand coloured illustrations. Inner front hinge cracked but firm, some scattered spots; a very good copy. Au$3,750

One of the great art nouveau books, a book that glows with colour and bristles with ideas. A strict application of first principles to design, Verneuil covers ceramics, wallpapers, binding, mosaic, stained glass, jewelry, metalwork, pochoir, and on.

HARRISON, DOBBIN & SEXTON. School Buildings of Today and Tomorrow. NY, Architectural Book Co. 1931. quarto, dustwrapper (this chipped); 233pp, numerous photo ills, plans. Au$100

A good survey of American and European examples and projects coupled with technical detail and requirements.

< HABERT-DYS, [Jules Auguste]. Fantaisies Decoratives. Paris, Rouam January 1886 to January 1887. folio; loose as issued in 12 parts, printed wrappers, together in publisher's folding cloth case, decorated in gilt and black (neat repairs to the back hinge and inside fold-over panels); 48 colour plates (several heightened with gold) and a separate leaf listing the plates in six languages. Some foxing (as seems usual) and a couple of plates dust stained along the bottom margins - presumably from being partly left out at some stage but on the whole a good, fresh copy; the wrappers all quite crisp. Au$1,500

Uncommon in any form and quite scarce in original parts in the publisher's elaborate case - particularly useful for the publisher's advertisement, the precise dating and the 12 extra designs, one for each wrapper. Habert-Dys is a prime example of who-knows-how-many successful, working designers and artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who now seems ill-documented. He appears to have a birthdate (1850) but no deathdate (sometime in the 20th century); objects are scattered through museums (the 250 piece service he exhibited at the 1889 exposition is in the Musee du Pole de la Porcelaine), and a tenacious search of library catalogues will eventually unearth quite a number of books with illustration or contributions by him, a few portfolios of designs (this appears to be the first and most ambitious of these) and one small monograph on his work (by Henri Classens in 1924). This album heralds the movement, via Japonisme, from the sentimental glug of past pastiches to Art Nouveau - the advertisement on the wrappers is explicit about this though the label itself is still a few years away - and all styles are represented here. Probably the foremost problem for Habert-Dys and posterity is his delicacy - without seeing the original his work is not strident enough to catch the modern eye - and no reproduction can capture the rich subtleties of tone, colour and detail; the publisher is rightly proud of this production - the coloured gravures are printed by Gillot (hence gillotypes) on 'papier du Chine' and backed onto heavier mounts. The designs themselves are fairly specific - textiles, wall paper, bookbindings, tea sets, plates and dishes, glass vases, jewellery, friezes and so on.

> WIJDEVELD, H.Th. An International Guild. A project. Santpoort, Mees 1931. square octavo yellow illustrated boards printed in red; 17pp and 16 plates (3 photos, the rest plans, renderings, perspectives). Au$350

A modernist utopian community school for architecture and art and the ÒNew LifeÓ, where study, practical work and an integrated modern, international but simple life go hand in hand. Wijdeveld began the project in 1927 and was now ready to go - the photographs are of the site and he is quite definite that it Òwill be builtÓ. A far more modest establishment did get built a few years later. This appeared contemporaneously in Dutch (and in any other language?) which turns up much more frequently than this English version.

HARTNELL, A.P. Shop Planning and Design. London [194-]. quarto publisher's cloth, very good in dustwrapper; 87pp, numerous photo ills, plans and measured drawings. Au$150

A good and not common book. Consciously wartime (Òamong the tasks .. are the re-building and re-fashioning of many business housesÓ) but pre-war in the smart modern designs. At the end are photos with accompanying plans of examples of shops and interiors by a number of architects.

< [Furniture]. Kleinmobel - kleinhelfer die das heim verschonen. n.p. [Germany 193-?]. oblong folio printed wrapp (a piece from one corner); numerous ills on 36 colour litho plates. First couple of pages a bit stained. Au$400

A mysterious but very appealing catalogue/pattern book of modern furniture designs (numbered 301 - 508), mostly unassuming but cheerful and occasionally stylish.

> HOLME, C.G.  [ed]. Industrial Architecture. Introduction by L.H. Bucknell. London, the Studio 1935. Quarto publisher's cloth and slightly frayed dustwrapper; 208pp, numerous photo ills. Au$375

The architecture of industry 'can be a power for good' and here the editors have chosen recent buildings throughout Europe, Britain and America which best exemplify such a purpose. They also point out how, where and why these buildings work. Some of the names are famous: Behrens, Gropius, Kahn, Maillart, Mendelsohn, Ponti; and some of the buildings may even survive but industrial architecture of the pre-war period is largely recorded only in a handful of books like this. Not a common book, particularly with dustwrapper.

HOLME, Charles [ed]. Modern Design in Jewellery and Fans. London, The Studio 1902. Quarto publisher's printed wrapper; numerous illustrations (17 colour plates including one printed on silk). Au$275

A very useful survey of all that is new and beautiful in modern design in Europe and England: high art nouveau in France - Aubert, Bing, Grasset, Lalique, Mucha, &c; and national substrata such as arts and crafts in Britain - Ashbee, Jesse King; Mackintosh, &c; the Seccesion and Werkstatte in Austria and Germany - Olbrich, Mesmer, Anna Wagner, Mohring &c. As with all of The Studio's efforts, the aim is education and advance; Holme says in his preliminary note, 'So long as a public is to found that will purchase trinketry in imitation of wheel-barrows, cocks and hens, flower-pots, and moons and stars, so long will the advance in art be retarded'.

Hotels. The Stevens. The World's Greatest Hotel. Chicago. Chicago, the company [1927]. Quarto publisher's printed wrapper; 32pp, profusely illustrated. Au$75

A celebratory promotion marking the opening of this massive and opulent pile. Built at a cost of over thirty million dollars, as proclaimed in the first sentence, the building still exists but the Stevens family went up in smoke wihin five years. By 1932 the hotel was bankrupt and the trio of father and two sons were soon after indicted for financial corruption. The father had a permanently crippling stroke, the elder son blew his brains out and the younger went to prison.

<< [in Japanese] Hyojun Shogyo Bijutsu [Standard Commercial Art]. [Tokyo?] 1932-3. Three volumes oblong quarto, publisher's light card wrappers printed in colour and silver; three preliminary leaves in each and 67 plates (22,23,22 in each). A fine set in publisher's printed card slipcase. Au$800

This set of lessons in commercial art probably wasn't considered anything special when new, which may help explain its rarity now. It ranges  from basics to highly finished examples of all sorts of commercial work. Commercial art in Japan meant much more than it does to us - so it goes from packaging, graphics, posters and advertising to shop architecture and display. A certain amount is the latest in French, German and occasionally British design but the best is of course Japanese. And a lot of it is exquisitely printed, in colour, silver and gold. 

JAKUBOWSKI, E. & F. NITSCH. Kunststoffe im Raum - Plastics in Interior Decoration. Munich, Callwey 1958. quarto, dustwrapper (a little chipped); 272pp, numerous photo ills (several colour), ills and measured drawings. Some spotting at the very ends. Au$150

Vivid high fifties design for furniture and interior spaces both domestic and commercial. The bulk of the text is in German but an index, preface and captions are also supplied in English and French.

>> FISHER, Cyril. A New Lighthouse Group for Green Point, Cape Town. unpublished thesis research, June 1957. Oblong 4to by size, screw binder titled in gilt on the front; 116 leaves of typescript on rectos only, 35 original photos and, loosely inserted another 15 original photos of Fisher's plans for his proposed new lighthouse (some of these insect chewed along one edge) and a letter of authority giving Fisher to enter lighthouses. Au$400

An unusual subject for an architectural thesis - lighthouses may be romantic but are not a particularly glamorous or practical project for an ambitious young architect. The loosely inserted 8x10 photos illustrate a perspective, plans and elevations for a thoroughly modernist lighthouse and the volume of research gives an historic background, examples of other lighthouses, examines the site and practical requirements. Mr Fisher did qualify as an architect but didn't, of course, get to build his new lighthouse.

< HULME, F. Edward. Suggestions in Floral Design. London, Cassell [1878]. folio modern half morocco (original decorated cloth front panel bound in at the end); 52pp and 52 chromolitho plates (including the title and end leaf). Some minor flaws: a stain in the bottom margin of the last couple of leaves of text, a couple of rumpled page edges and some repairs to tissue guards; on the whole rather good, clean and unfoxed. Au$1,750

Hulme is mostly remembered as an art-botanist and ornamental encyclopaedist and perhaps his name has been blackened by dreary, usually incomplete, sets of 'Familiar Wild Flowers' choking the bookshops of the world. His skill as designer has been unjustly neglected and this, his most exciting book, makes that clear. The influence of his teacher and colleague Christopher Dresser is obvious in the forms and flat bright colours but that is no curse. The accompanying text is plain and helpful and the plates are beautifully printed by Dupuy of Paris.

[Le Corbusier]. STONOROV, O. & W. BOESIGER. Le Corbusier und Pierre Jeanneret - Ihr Gesamtes Werk von 1910 - 1929. Zurich, Girsberger 1930. oblong quarto publisher's coarse cloth (a little darkened and marked); 224pp, numerous photo ills and plans. Inner front hinge cracked but firm, minor signs of use but a good copy. Au$1,850

Inscribed and signed by Corbusier to M. Rosenthal. Leon Rosenthal's more or less private competition to design a massive development for the Porte Maillot in Paris was the start of an insistently recurring project of Corbusier's. He attacked Porte Maillot many times in many ways - and somehow won: his ideas for traffic were taken up decades later and, so I'm told, Porte Maillot now looks much like Corbusier's design sans the buildings. First edition of the first of the monographs collecting all his work, and quite uncommon.

> LEGRAND, Edy. Voyages Glorieuses Decouvertes des Grands Navigateurs & Explorateurs Francais. Paris, Tolmer 1921. folio publisher's illustrated boards & cloth spine; 2 folding maps & colour ills throughout coloured by pochoir. A remarkably good copy. Au$1,250

One of the triumphs of modern French book making which, fittingly enough looks back to the triumphs (or glory at least) of Cartier, de la Salle and La Perouse.

MARTIN, J.L., Ben NICHOLSON and N. GABO [eds]. Circle. International Survey of Constructive Art. NY, Weyhe [1937]. Small quarto publisher's cloth, dustwrapper; 291pp, numerous illustrations. Light tape marks on the endpapers but a very good copy. Au$800

First American edition using the English sheets and in the Faber dustwrapper, seemingly as issued - the dustwrapper is original to this copy. The dustwrapper has some cracks around the spine and hinges and a couple of pieces missing from the top and bottom of the back panel but is essentially complete and is clean; the English price has not been clipped off. All this chat about the wrapper is an indication of how difficult it is to find a copy with dustwrapper. Possibly the most influential omnibus of modernist art and architecture in English, certainly the most international, with contributions by Mondrian, Corbusier, Nicholson, Moore, Breuer, Neutra, Sartoris, Gropius, Moholy-Nagy, Tschichold &c.

< [Metal Ware]. Metafa, Strassburg. Metallwarefabrik Schiltigheim. Katalog Nr.40. The company [1930's]. oblong quarto illustrated wrapp; 34pp, numerous ills. Detatchable order cards present. Au$100

Modern chromeware, much for the kitchen (including a sausage rack). At the end is some smart moderne children's furniture.

MINNUCCI, Gaetano.  Scuole. Milan, Hoepli 1936. quarto illustrated cloth (spine splitting along the hinges); 277pp, numerous photo ills and plans.  Au$300

A fascist, modernist survey of educational facilities from the smallest detail through to complete buildings and landscaping. With examples from America, throughout Europe, a couple from Egypt and French Morocco, and including work by Sert, Lurcat, Max Taut, Wolf and many others.

[Moholy-Nagy]. MOHOLY-NAGY, Sibyl. moholy-nagy  experiment in totality .. with an introduction by walter gropius. NY, Harper 1950. Octavo publisher's cloth and torn and chipped but mostly complete dustwrapper; 81 ills (4 colour). Au$100

First edition.

> RAYMOND, Jehan. Le Cuir. Compositions Decoratives. Chicago, Broes van Dort [1908?]. Folio, loose as issued in publisherÕs cloth portfolio (hinges worn and separating); title, contents leaf and numerous colour illustrations on 48 plates (most with three or four illustrations); each plate with a printed transparent overlay. Library markings on title and inside cover but nowhere else inside. Some wear outside and signs of use but clearly never used as intended and, in all, the plates are in rather good shape. This is the American issue of a Parisian work, the title page reprinted but everything else unchanged. Au$850

An appealing pattern book of quite elaborate art nouveau designs for leather work - pocket cases and wallets, cigarette boxes, bindings, calendars, music portfolios and so on - with coloured, mosaic or inlaid designs. Each of the transparent overlays has the full size outline pattern for copying (or probably more often complete removal and direct transfer) onto the leather. Given that destruction of the portfolio was pretty much built in it is not surprising that it seems quite rare outside the institutional libraries that tucked it away.

[Niemeyer]. PAPADAKI, Stamo. The Work of Oscar Niemeyer. NY, Reinhold 1950. largish square octavo, very good in somewhat worn & chipped dustwrapper; 220pp, numerous photos, ills, plans. Au$100

<< BINET, Rene. Esquisses Decoratives. Paris, Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts [c1905]. folio, loose as issued in four fascicules in illustrated wrappers, all in publisherÕs portfolio of cloth backed illustrated boards; [2],14pp and 60 plates, 13 pochoir and a few others with a second colour added, b/w ills through the text. A rather good copy. Au$3,000

Binet, like many architects and designers, followed Haeckel into the microscopic world for grotesque and fantastic inspiration but married such modernity with historicism in a singular way. Durant (in ÔOrnamentÕ) calls Binet Òin many respects the typical French Art Nouveau designerÓ which, apart from being too dismissive, is just not right. Many of his designs, particularly the coloured graphics, are ultra modern high art nouveau but much of his work has an oddly arcane, recherche effect - in which something as modern as an electric light switch modelled on the forms of diatomes or radiolaria and treated with Beaux Arts tradition becomes a mysterious if not menacing almost gothic artifact. Without claiming anything of the same stature, or even similar results, for Binet he could probably be more usefully likened to Gaudi. This is an exposition of ideas for every school of design that Binet could encompass - from architectural detail to pochoir graphics; shop fronts to tapestry; stained glass to gardens; jewellery to mosaics.

LECHNER, Jeno Kismarty. Olgyay & Olgyay. Budapest, Istvan [1946?]. oblong quarto boards (spine a bit worn); 72pp, numerous ills, photos, plans. Text in Hungarian and English. Au$200

The first of a planned series on Arts and Artists in Hungary starting naturally with the 'mother of the arts' and the modernist twin brothers. Both executed buildings and projects ranging from a modest equestrian shelter in New York (1937), the pavilions for the Budapest International Fair in 1941 and the Izmir International Fair in 1943 (who attended these?) to apartment buildings to slum clearance and urban development.

[Perret]. COLLINS, Peter. Concrete, the Vision of a New Architecture. A study of Auguste Perret and his precursors. London, Faber 1959. octavo publisher's cloth; 307pp and numerous ills on 104 plates. A very good copy. Au$175

Uncommon and a very good book. An erudite study of the early architectural history of concrete and the buildings of Perret  - a proto-modernist who will surprise anyone unfamiliar with his work.

> PFLEIDERER, Wolfgang [ed]. Die Form Ohne Ornament. Werkbundaustellung 1924. Stuttgart, Deutsche Verlags 1925. quarto publisher's cloth, excellent in dustwrapper; viii,22pp, photo ills on 89 plates and adverts. Au$300

Third and fourth thousand. The Werkbund displayed for 1924: from soap to gravestones, cutlery to satchels.

PHILLIPS, R. Randal. The Servantless House. London, Country Life 1920. Octavo publisher's cloth & boards (some minor signs of use); 160pp, 103 illustrations, most from photos. Au$165

First edition; there was a second in 1923. A fairly radical jump into the modern world for Country Life, not too far, but still a big jump for the middle classes for whom the war had pretty well settled the difficulties of the 'servant problem'. The house as machine is still a little way off but Phillips takes us much of the way (his are certainly stuffed with machines). The working of the home must now be 'schemed along lines similar to those adapted for workshops, factories, and other modern business concerns'. Phillips makes it clear that this book is not concerned with taste and decoration (of course he can't sustain this indifference) but with the planning and equipping of the home for the 'minimum of labour and maximum of effectiveness.'

RITTER, Hubert. Der Krankenhausbau der Gegenwart. Stuttgart, Hoffmann 1932. quarto printed wrapp (chipped dustwrapper panel loosely inserted); 102pp, numerous photo ills & plans. A chip from the spine, a couple of small stamps of the NSW Hospital Commission but a good copy. Au$125

The latest in hospital design and technology and a good survey of hospitals, both built and projected, in Europe and America.

< BAKER, Richard T. The Australian Flora in Applied Art. Part I The Waratah. Sydney, Tech Museum 1915. Small quarto publisher's cloth; numerous colour & b/w illustrations, some of the plates with gold or silver. Au$330

Part I is all published and apparently all Baker ever planned to publish. The book was part of his fervid campaign to have the Waratah made the national flower, and his chance to champion the designs of Lucien Henri which he had recovered from under a tub in a Surry Hills washhouse. It is a pity he never continued the series but he has produced probably Australia's most attractive book on applied arts. Lucien Henri's own pattern book remains unpublished, few of his realised designs survive .. this is about as close as we get.

[Furniture]. Meubles Modernes. [Paris c1930?]. oblong quarto printed wrapp; numerous photo ills on 32 pages. Used but decent enough. Au$100

A not entirely happy amalgam of modernity and period but a good record of what filled countless bourgeois homes. The makers are as yet unidentifed but the cover is monogrammed TF or FT (Thonet Freres is the first thought but it seems unlikely).

SEXTON, R.W. The Logic of Modern Architecture. Exteriors and interiors of modern American buildings. NY, Architectural Book 1929. quarto blue cloth printed in orange and black, very good in shabby, repaired dustwrapper; 133pp, numerous ills and photos.  Au$275

Five essays on principles illustrated with a satisfying number of smart examples.

> Biedermeier-Zierat. Plauen, Christian Stoll [c1900?]. smallish folio contemporary half morocco (spine worn and chipped at ends but solid enough); [4]pp, 24 colour litho plates. Au$500

Actually an often appealing pattern book of jugendstil ornamental designs for printed fabrics, papers and suchlike. The Biedermeier period is used as inspiration resulting in some mawkish designs but many of the stylised patterns are quite smart and the whole is colourful and cheerful. This has been subtitled a Ôkleine ausgabeÕ which suggests a larger version of some sort existed, whether this means in format or content I have been unable to discover.

< Bremen Europa. Die Kommenden Grossbauten des Norddeutschen Lloyd Bremen. Hamburg, Forster & Borries, Zwickau [1928]. Quarto publisher's illustrated wrapper, cord tied (a little smudged); 24 leaves printed on one side; numerous illustrations, decorations and mounted photo plates (in embossed borders). With stamps of the Yokahama agents of Norddeutscher Lloyd. A very good copy. Au$450

The height of art deco ocean liner chic, both the ships and this promotion. Photos and stylish illustrations of construction are followed by a section on the 'culture of travel' - opulent surroundings and high living.

SIMON, Oliver and RODENBERG, Julius. Printing of To-Day. An illustrated survey of post-war typography in Europe and the United States. With a general introduction by Aldous Huxley. London, Peter Davies 1928. quarto, publisher's cloth (the white cloth a touch browned); 122 examples in appropriate colours. Au$300

Edition of 300 copies on hand made paper

SPARROW, Walter Shaw. Advertising and British Art, an introduction to vast subject. London, John Lane 1924. Quarto publisher's cloth backed boards; xviii,189pp, 36 colour plates, 121 b/w and some illustrations through the text. Last three leaves (adverts and one index leaf) with a crease, a few spots but a perfectly acceptable copy. Au$200

SPIEGEL, Hans. Der Stahlhausbau. Leipzig, Frohlich 1928 & Berlin, Bauwelt 1931. 2 volumes quarto publisher's cloth (spine of the second worn, fragmented dustwapper of the first loosely inserted); numerous photo ills, plans, diagrams. Au$350

Doubtless the essential text on building in steel, covering materials, design and construction. The first volume is immediately the more appealing with surveys of steel houses in America, England, France and Germany and finishes with a section on furniture. It is also a stylishly designed book but it seems that something happened with it or the publisher - it has the publisher's overlaid slip changing it from Frohlich 1928 to Bauwelt 1929. Volume II is more prosaic in appearance but isn't without appeal - it ranges from the Empire State Building to the World's Largest Pineapple.

> [Stoves &c]. Faure Pere & Fils, Revin. Additif a l'Album General No.54 de 1935. The company 1936. oblong quarto printed wrapp; [26]pp, illustrated throughout. Au$150

A smart moderne catalogue of iron and enamel or ceramic smart moderne stoves. Some are quite elaborately art deco and two heaters purposely  resemble radios.

<< [SUGAWARA, Eizo]. [in Japanese] Shinbashi Enbujo [Shinbashi Theatre]. Tokyo, Koyosha 1926. Small quarto publisher's decorated boards blocked in gilt and red, printed card slipcase; [2],10pp and 71 plates (two colour plates with mosaic designs). An excellent copy. Au$950

This should be called 'Frank Lloyd Wright's Tokyo Theatre', for it is, top to toe, pure Wright. Even the red and gold decoration on this binding is pure Wright. Wright did design a never-built theatre while in Tokyo so despite his aversion to sharing credit, or fees, perhaps he had some satisfaction in seeing the Geisha theatre of his acolyte Eizo Sugawara realised so exactly in his own image. Following the colour plates of mosaic designs are measured drawings and plans and photo views of the exterior and interior, where Wright is particularly rampant, with satisfying detail. The theatre lasted longer than Wright's Imperial Hotel by a few years - it was rebuilt in 1982 - but this monograph seems to be the only real record that survives. As no drawings or plans for Wright's Ginza theatre are known to survive, this is as close as we get to his ambitions for a Japanese theatre.

[in Japanese]. Gendai kenchiku taikan. Soveto rotsua kenchiku [Survey of Contemporary Architecture. Soviet Architecture]. Tokyo 1930. Folio, loose as issued in publisher's card portfolio with printed label; four pages of text and 15 plates with renderings and photo illustrations. A bit of damp-marking to some margins. Au$80

This is part 16 of a well produced and interesting series, indicative of how the Japanese kept their finger on the international pulse, each covering a different area in contemporary building - this one is the Soviet avant-garde. There are some familiar sights and names in the unbuilt: Tatlin's tower, Vesnin, Lissitzky; and a number of finished buildings which may be less familiar.

> TAUT, Bruno. Fundamentals of Japanese Architecture. Tokyo, Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai 1936. Slender quarto patterned stiff wrapper with mounted label; 36pp (12 pages of photo illustrations, plans, &c). An outstanding copy. Au$500

HARADA, Jiro. The Lessons of Japanese Architecture. London, the Studio 1936. quarto publisher's cloth; 192pp, numerous photo ills, some plans and ills through the text. Endpapers spotted but quite a good copy. Au$150

One of the first explications of the principles of Japanese architecture for an English speaking audience (just at the same time that Bruno Taut was explaining Japanese architecture to the Japanese) by a Japanese writer and an influential book, though the later edition (1954) met with a more receptive audience. Harada was not an architect, but he was a professional aesthetician well qualified to discuss, as he does, the philosophical, aesthetic, spiritual and practical codes and principles at work in Japanese buildings.

TAYLOR, George A. Town Planning for Australia. Sydney, Building Limited [1914]. small quarto publisher's cloth; 136pp, numerous photos ills, plans & diagrams. Ex Sydney University architecture library with labels on endpapers, not marked inside. Au$350

Inscribed by Taylor to Hugh Venables Vernon, architect and son of  Walter. First edition and quite uncommon. There were at least three editions but has anyone ever seen all of them? Taylor was a tireless progressive reformer with an old testament approach and style. His themes and subjects are familiar, he worked at them over and over again: Griffin's Canberra design championed; Andersen's and Hebrard's proposed World Centre. Local details are not forgotten. The faults, flaws and chances for improvement in Sydney or Melbourne are worried over with examples, good and bad, drawn from all over the world.

< THOMAS, Aug. H. Formes et Couleurs. Paris, Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts [1921]. Folio, loose as issued in publisher's portfolio with a colour printed label (edges a bit knocked or worn); title and 20 pochoir plates with 67 designs. Au$2,500

Vivid and captivating high deco designs. Thomas, as far as I can discern, was imaginative and competent but, as far as I can discover, never murdered his wife, slept with Dali or Gertrude Stein (perhaps Nijinsky but didn't everyone?), nor cross Andre Breton. So he remains largely neglected by everyone but print dealers.

Wendingen. XII:7/8. Scholen [cover title]. Wendingen 1931. large square quarto illust wrapp, rafia tied (marked); 30pp (double folded), photo ills and plans. Au$100

Issue devoted to recent school buildings by van der Steur in Rotterdam, Vorkink in Amsterdam, Westerhout in Almelo &c.

>  [WRIGHT, Frank Lloyd]. [in Japanese] Teikokuhoteru [The Imperial Hotel]. Tokyo, May 1923. Quarto publisher's cloth backed printed boards with onlaid illustration (spine worn); one leaf of text; a booklet with five double page floor plans and 44 loose photo plates numbered to 58 (the floor plans and two double page plates each carry two numbers). A couple of photo plates printed in duotone to highlight contrasts between materials. An occasional splodge or sign of use. sold

Rare - unseen by Sweeney who knew of its existence from a mention in Hitchcock's essay on Wright in the 1932 MoMA exhibition Modern Architecture (see Sweeney 148). The as yet mostly unopened Imperial Hotel, ostensibly complete but for occupants; in fact pictures of the restaurant show the tables set. This is a quite serious monograph, not a promotional memento; the floor plans are clearly reproduced from working drawings and the whole is a pretty comprehensive survey, with exterior and interior views and details, furniture and decoration.

Architectural Forum January 1948 .. Frank Lloyd Wright. NY 1948. quarto illust wrapp (a touch used with some wear at spine ends); numerous photos, plans, ills (some folding). Quite a good copy. Au$285

The second of the issues devoted to Wright.

YORKE, F.R.S. The Modern House. London, Architectural Press 1934. small quarto publisher's cloth (the cream cloth a bit browned); 200pp, numerous photo ills, plans. Au$100

Worhy, solid and not unimaginative in his choice of examples, but yet Yorke is near forgotten. His books though were among the most influential pattern books for English speaking, particularly Australian, architects who had any claim to be contemporary.

<< [Nakagawa, Shuzo?]. [in Japanese] Jinkotsu Toyomi No Shinkosei [more or less: New Compositions of Beauty of Human Anatomy]. Tokyo 1932. Quarto, 13 double page card sheets, loose as issued in publisher's colour illustrated portfolio with a naked women leaping a mounted volvelle and a silver and black checker pattern down the edge and on the back (a few rubs and scrapes but pretty good). The sheets consist of the title and preliminary text on one opening and twelve mounted photo plates facing a page of text and diagram. Au$1,100

Immensely appealing and not a little mysterious. Clearly a theoretical concept of some heft as been applied in place of the usual flimsy excuse to photograph naked young women but I'm not sure quite what it is apart from the application of geometric forms to the human frame. The mystery for me is compounded by my inability to find a copy of this book in any library, in fact any mention of it anywhere. There is a sea of recent writing about notions of modernism, eroticism, popular culture, photography and design in Japan between the wars; surely some space has been given to this shining example of all of them - I just can't find it.

>> Design. An album of designs for textiles and/or wallpaper. c1913-1920's? Large folio cloth [620x430mm]; 24 card leaves with 39 mounted original colour block prints (3 double page). Expected signs of use but nothing drastic; one print removed. Au$1,200

Presumably the designer's album of designs, these are proof prints from the blocks, each show the shape where the repeat pattern fits. The first pages are annotated with details of the client ( "Achete a George. 9 Rue St Fiacre Paris - in earlier decades this was the home of a calico manufacturer, which makes sense and now houses a public relations firm and Ella Bache, which is neither here nor there) and the engraver (Gillet, sometimes in concert with someone else); the details dwindle as the album proceeds until we reach the large and dramatic geometric design in black and white which was "vendu a Mrs Bosset". Dating these designs to 1913 would seem foolish but for the first few leaves being dated 1913 in the top corner; two or three are dull, traditional floral patterns but the rest, while by no means radical avant garde, would sit more happily in the next decade or two - some are really quite stylish. The theme is floral, or at least botanical although one is based on a Chinese cloud pattern; several are oriental in style or inspiration and one is a very stylish piece of Japanese abstraction.