RUSSIAN - Bloomsbury Auctions

Lot 10. BALMONT, Konstantin Dmitrievich (1867-1942).
Zvenya [The Link]. Moscow: “Skorpion,” 1913. 283 pp. 8vo (190 x 125 mm). Original decorated pale green wrappers. Condition: wrappers
soiled, backstrip chipped and cracked; fragile.
[With:] Zarevo zor [Glow of Twilight]. Moscow: Grif, 1914. Second edition. 169 pp. Small 8vo (175 x 110 mm). Designed by V. M. Sablin.
Original two-color decorated tan wrappers. Condition: wrappers lightly spotted, backstrip with some minor chipping and discoloration;
small tape repair to verso of back wrapper.
[And:] Belyi zodyii [White Architect]. St. Petersburg: “Sirin,” 1914. 332 pp. Folio (250 x 190 mm). Original light blue wrappers. Condition:
wrappers soiled and creased; splits at head and tail of backstrip, small rubber stamps to verso of wrappers.
three collections of poetry by the imporant russian symbolist. He also translated Shelley, Ibsen, Whitman, and Armenian poetry.
His free translation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Bells” served as the basis for Rachmaninoff ’s choral symphony, Op. 35. Both Prokofiev and
Stravinsky set his poetry to music. As an anti-tsarist, he at first supported the Russian Revolution but not the Bolsheviks. He emigrated to
Germany and settled in France where he died in poverty. (3)
$2000 – $3000
Lot 10
Lot 11. BALTRUSHAITIS, Jurgis Kazimirovich (1873-1944).
Zemnyya stupeni. Elegii, pesni, poemy [Earthly Stages. Elegies, Songs and Poems]. Moscow: “Skorpion,” 1911. 216 pp. 8vo (195 x 150 mm). Original
decorated wrappers. Condition: wrappers soiled with minor chipping to edges; backstrip chipped with some loss.
[With:] Gornaya tropa. Vtoraya kniga stikhov [Mountain Path. Second Book of Poetry]. Moscow: “Skorpion,” 1912. 183 pp. 8vo (200 x 155 mm).
Original wrappers. Condition: wrappers thumbsoiled, backstrip slightly chipped with tape repairs to head and tail.
early works by the silver age poet. Baltrushaitis was a Lithuanian Symbolist poet who wrote primarily in Russian. His circle included
Konstantin Balmont, Aleksandr Blok, Valerii Briusov and Vyacheslav Ivanov. He died in Paris. (2)
$2000 – $3000
Lot 12. BEARDSLEY, Aubrey (1872-1898) and Mikhail Alekseevich KUZMIN (1872-1936) (translator).
Obri Berdslei. Izbranye pisunki [Aubrey Beardsley: Selected Drawings]. Moscow: Skorpion, 1912. 204 pp. Square 8vo (225 x 170 mm). + 30 plates.
Contemporary gilt-lettered brown boards. Condition: boards rubbed with minor staining, corners bumped; rubber stamp and pen notations
to endpaper, rear joint cracked.
first edition of an important early russian monograph on the great english illustrator. Beardsley’s influence on Russian
artists of the Silver Age is inestimable. In addition to a fine selection of the drawings, this book contains translations of Robert Ross’ and
Arthur Simmons’ memoirs of the artist, Beardsley’s “Venus and Tannhauser,” some of his letters, appreciations by Joseph Pennell and Vittorio
Pika and a bibliography of the published work. Kuzmin translated Beardsley’s poems “The Three Musicians” and “The Ballad of a Barber”
into Russian for this collection.
$1000 – $1500
12 Russian Literature & Art Russian Literature & Art 13
Lot 11
Lot 12