Russian Art & Literature - Bloomsbury Auctions

Lot 70. [PERIODICAL] - LEBEDEV. Vladimir Vasilievich
(1891-1967), illustrator.
Novyi Satirikon [The New Satirikon].Nos. 23 ( June 1917); No. 1
( January 1918); and No. 9 (May 1918). Petrograd. N. Satirikon.
(Each 365 x 260 mm). Condition: some tears and chipping, mostly
to margins.
Three issues of the leading satirical magazine of the Russian
Revolution of 1917. It described the hard struggle from tsarist to
socialist state with often caustic humor and lasted from 1914 to
1918. Lebedev emerged from its pages as a major Soviet illustrator
before he turned to designing his celebrated Constructivist
children’s books. Besides Lebedev, Boris Antonovskii, Kasimir
Grus, “Miss” (Anna Vladimirovna Remizova), Aleksei Radakov,
Nikolai Radlov and “Re-Mi” (Nikolai Remizov-Vasiliev) all
supplied barbed political and social cartoons to this popular
journal.
[With:] KOGAN, Aleksandr, editor. Solnce Rossii [The Russian
Sun]. No. 386 (28), 1917. Petrograd: Kopeika. (350 x 245 mm).
Condition: some tears and chipping, mostly to margins.
One issue of a society periodical, covering literature and the arts.
This issue is generously illustrated by reproductions of works by
Marc Chagall, Nataliya Voitinskaya-Levidova, Iurii Annenkov,
Vladimir Khodasevich and Nikolai Radlov. There are also
black-and-white photographs taken by Yakov Steinberg, depicting
the reality of the first days after the Revolution of 1917: street
crowds gazing at revolutionary and election posters, guards by the
doors of Lenin’s cabinet in Smolny and the headquarters of the
new revolutionary government. (4)
$1,500 - $2,000
Lot 71. [PERIODICAL] CHUKOVSKY, Kornei (1882-1969),
editor.
Signal. November 27 and a special number, 1905; and January 8,
1906. Petersburg: B. Kazachii. Each (335 x 225 mm). Condition:
small chips to lower edge of one issue.
Three issues of a rare satirical magazine edited by the famous
Russian children’s book writer, translator and critic. On returning
from London where he had been a correspondent, Chukovsky
founded Signal in response to the tsar’s crackdown on the
Revolution of 1905. In 1906, the officials closed down the journal
by arresting the editor and released him after six months of
incarceration. He went on to become one of his country’s greatest
translators of English and the author of such children’s classics as
Krokodil [The Crocodile] and Telefon [The Telephone]. He did not
long stay out of trouble: Lenin’s widow Nadezhda Krupskaya
denounced Chukovsky in Pravda as corrupting young Russians
with his popular nonsense verse.
40 Books & Periodicals
Lot 70
[With:] SNO, Evgenii, editor. Dyatel [The Woodpecker]. No. 1,
1905. St. Petersburg: Narodnaya polza, 1905. (445 x 340 mm).
One issue of another satirical magazine that rose in response to
the Russian Revolution of 1905. (4)
$1,200 - $1,500
Lot 72. Nicholas II , Emperor of Russia (1868-1916).
Letterpress broadsheet edict. Odessa: E. I. Fesenko , 1913. 460 x
360mm. Condition: 6 small worm holes one affecting letters, paper
lightly browned, margins slightly chipped.
Published to commemorate the 300 years of the reign of the
Romanov Family in Russia, the edict proclaims a nationwide
amnesty for the imprisoned to celebrate the occasion, and
documents the achievements of the Russian Empire in Science ,
the Arts, Agriculture and in Foreign Affairs.
$400 - $600