Russian Art & Literature - Bloomsbury Auctions

Lot 5. BALIEFF, Nikita (1876-1936).
Teatr letuchaya mysh N. F. Baileva [N. F. Baileff’s Theater of “The Bat”]. Petrograd: Solntse Rossii, 1918. Text by N. E. Efros. Illustrated with
tipped-in photogravures and decorations by Sergei Vasileevich Chekhonin. 48 pp. Folio (305 x 240 mm). Decorated pink wrappers
designed by S. V. Chekhonin; entire collection housed in brown cloth folding case with morocco gilt lettering piece. Condition: covers
partially split, tail of backstrip chipped, lower wrapper with two small punctures.
First edition of the history of the first ten years of the legendary “Chauve-Souris” theater troupe founded by the Armenian impresario N.
Balieff. On leaving Konstantin Stanislavsky’s Moscow Art Theater, Balieff turned to comedy and formed his own group of gifted actors. He
called the company “chauve-souris” (French for “bat”) when one landed on his hat. The Russian Revolution of 1917 drove them to Paris
and they countinued to flourish in Europe and the United States.
[With:] BALIEFF, Nikita (1876-1936). Chauve-souris. [Paris: Comoedia Illustrè, 1920-1928?]. 11 theater programmes, large 4to (317
x 248 mm). Illustrations, most colored, after Sergei Sudeikin, Nikolai Remizov and others. Original pictorial wrappers, the upper covers
printed with colored designs after Soudeikin or Remisov. A fine series of programmes from the company directed by Nikita Balieff.
[And:] CZAROVICH, Itzchok and A. Archangelsky. Katinka. New York: Harms Inc., 1922. 8 pp. Folio (310 x 235 mm). Decorated
wrappers by N. Remizov. Sheet music of song sung in the first tour of Balieff ’s “Chauve-Souris” in America.
[And:] GILBERT, L. Wolf and Richard Fall. O Katharina. New York: Leo. Feist, Inc., 1924. 6 pp. Folio (310 x 235 mm). Decorated
wrappers by A. Hudiakoff. Sheet music of song sung in the 1924 American tour of Balieff ’s “Chauve-Souris.”
[And:] VAN LOON, HENDRIK Willem (1882-1944), Nikita BALIEFF (1876-1936) and others. The Patriot. New York: Sackett &
Wilhelms Corp., 1928. Illustrated by H. W. van Loon, Norman-Bel Geddes and others. 16 pp. Folio (315 x 235 mm). Decorated wrappers
designed by S. Soudeikin. Rare theater programme for the famous German play about Tsar Paul I of Russia, that opened in New York in
1928. Later that year, Ernst Lubitsch made it into a silent movie, now lost. (15)
$15,000 - $16,000
6 Books & Periodicals
Lot 5