The Garden Party and Other Stories

London: The Verona Press [Printed at the Officina Bodoni, Verona, 1939], 1939. Limited Edition. Leather. Very Good Plus. Laurencin, Marie. No. 10 of 30 de luxe copies, quarto size, 328 pp., signed by Marie Laurencin (twice). Kathleen Mansfield Murry (1888-1923), born and raised in New Zealand, moved to the UK at the age of 19 where she became a friend of modernist writers such as D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf; she died at the age of 34 from tuberculosis.

This work is a collection of her short stories, wonderfully illustrated by Marie Laurencin (1883-1956), a French painter and an important figure in the Parisian avant-garde. She was a member of the circle which included Pablo Picasso and other cubists, and is known as one of the few female Cubist painters (n.b., above info from Wiki). The lithographs in this volume are more traditional, being lovely portraits of the characters evoking the deep emotions of the stories.

___DESCRIPTION: De luxe version bound in turquoise leather and signed by the artist (two signatures, as set forth above), simple embossed ruled borders in dark green on both boards and the spine, tan leather spine label with gilt lettering, top edge gilt, ruled borders in gilt on the turn-ins, title page in rust and black with a decorative border, Publisher's Note tipped in after the copyright page (7.25" by 5"), sixteen colour lithographs throughout the text, colophon page at the rear, this signed twice by Marie Laurencin (once on the page titled "Colophon", again on the colophon page itself), limited edition of 1200 copies of which numbers 1-30 were signed by the artist, this no. 10; small quarto in size (approximately 10" tall), pagination: (i-x), 1-316, Colophon (317-318). The custom box is quarter-bound in turquoise leather, black leather spine label with gilt lettering and decorative rules over natural linen boards, the sides of the box being of ivory cloth, the interior sides of ivory paper.

___CONDITION: Very good plus to near fine overall, with the leather boards being smooth and supple, a strong, square text block, solid hinges, straight corners with a minimum of rubbing, the interior is clean and bright, the original ribbon marker is present, and it is entirely free of prior owner markings; the spine is somewhat sunned, ribbon marker faded at the bottom, some wear on the bottom edges of the boards, some light foxing on the fore-edge of the text block, and some very light toning to the free endpapers from the turn-ins. The custom box is fine, with some sunning to the spine from turquoise to teal.

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