From Constable to Koons Books Inscribed by Artists Benjamin Spademan Rare Books The descriptions in the catalogue are brief. Fuller descriptions are available on request. FROM CONSTABLE TO KOONS All the books are in fine condition, unless otherwise stated. The reproductions are not the actual size. BOOKS INSCRIBED BY ARTISTS Benjamin Spademan Rare Books 14 Mason’s Yard, London SW1Y 6BU + 44 (0)7768 076772
[email protected] www.benjaminspademan.com Cover Henri Matisse. Verve, Revue artistique et littéraire, n° 66. Title page D. G. Rossetti. A Treasure of English Sonnets, n° 82. BENJAMIN SPADEMAN RARE BOOKS I started putting together this group of books, almost by chance some ten years ago, when I acquired in Paris a monograph on Henry Moore, with an original drawing and presentation by the artist on the title page. Next came a Francis Bacon, and thereafter gradually a collection began to form. To qualify for inclusion, books had to have been personally transformed by the artist, usually as a gift to another person. The criteria for selection were drawn broadly, to include visual artists of all kinds - painters, sculptors, illustrators, cartoonists, stage & fashion designers - and allowing all kinds of art, from highly finished drawings, collages and watercolours to fairly minimal interventions. The books too covered a wide range of types, from livres d’artistes, to standard monographs, to periodicals, exhibition catalogues and ephemera such as invitations. In the process of selection, the focus was always on the quality of the image and the interest of the inscription.The earliest examples, John Constable and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, are both intensely personal family affairs.