Russian Art & Literature - Bloomsbury Auctions

Lot 68. [PERIODICAL] - ARSTYBUSHEV, Iu. K., editor.
Zritel [The Spectator]. Nos. 22-24 (November 22-December 4,
1905). St. Petersburg: Iu. K. Balyanskii. Each (330 x 230 mm).
Three issues of this short-lived “political-social and satirical
journal” of the Revolution of 1905. With contributions by Fedor
Sologub and Sasha Chorny with “Chepukha” [“Gibberish”]..
[With:] KNOROZOVSKII, I. M., editor. Strely [Arrows]. No. 2
(Nov 5, 1905). St. Petersburg: Snergiya. (322 x 230 mm).
One issue of this “sarcastic and merciless journal.”
[And:] SHEBUEV, Nikolai G., editor. Pulemet[ Machine Gun]. St.
Petersburg: Trud. Each (300 x 345 mm). Condition: intermittent
chipping to edges.
Four issues of this anti-tsarist satirical magazine. The editor
Shebuev was jailed for one year for “insulting his imperial majesty”
through Pulemet. (8)
$1,200 - $1,500
Lot 69
Lot 69. [PERIODICAL] - GRZHEBIN, Zinovii I., editor.
Zhupel [Bugbear]. Nos. 1, 1905 and 3, 1906. St. Petersburg: R.
Golike and A. Vilborg. Each (370 x 280 mm). Condition: wrappers
detached but present, corner creasing.
Two rare issues of the legendary suppressed satirical magazine of
the Russian Revolution of 1905. Many members of Mir Iskusstva
[World of Art] contributed to this controversial journal under the
art direction of Evgenii Lansere. No. 1 contains classic cartoons by
Sergei Chekhonin, Mstislav Dobuzhinsky and Valentin Serov in
response to the blood shed by the tsar’s brutal attack on a peaceful
demonstration on January 5, 1905. Grzhebin supplied a cartoon of
the Russian double eagle when turned over shows the tsar showing
off his bare behind. It also has a poem “Pritcha o chort” [“The
Parable of the Devil”] by Konstantin Balmont. No. 3 contains Ivan
Bilibin’s notorious cartoon of the tsar as an ass that resulted in the
shutdown of Zhrupel and the arrest and imprisonment of the artist.
It also contains drawings by Dobizhinsky and Boris Anisfeld
[With:] MIKLASHEVSKII (Nevedomskii), M. P., editor.
Leshii [The Wood Goblin]. Nos. 1-4, 1906. St. Petersburg: E.
Zarudnayua-Kavos. Each (340 x 255 mm).
Six issues of this “organ of satirical meditation” that too grew out of
the Russian Revolution of 1905. Illustrated with barbed anti-tsarist
cartoons by Valery Carrick and others. (6)
$2,000 - $3,000
Books & Periodicals 39