Four Tales from the Arabian Nights, 1948

Description:

The Complete Deluxe Edition

Provenance:

Purchased in 1948 from Pantheon Books. Thence by descent to the present owner.

The complete deluxe edition, 1948, comprising thirteen color lithographs with title page, table of contents and justification page, numbered V, from the edition of Roman numerals I-X, each plate signed Marc Chagall in pencil, inscribed with the plate number and numbered V/10, each plate within a paper folder printed with a phrase from the text and a black and white lithograph depicting the subject contained therein: all contained in a glassine wrapped cardboard folio. Together with 166 progressive color proofs with color separations for each of the thirteen plates, all contained in a glassine wrapped cardboard folio, both folios within a cardboard slipcase. The lithographs printed by Albert Carmen, City Island, New York, in collaboration with the artist. The black and white drawings printed by Meriden Gravure Company, Meriden, Connecticut, published by Pantheon Books, New York. In good condition, never hinged or displayed outside of the portfolio, a few sheets with nearly imperceptible soiling in the margins, plate 4 with a small handling crease in the upper right corner of the margin, 166 progressive proofs also in good condition with some very minor creases along the edges, the glassine paper covering the folio torn on the back flap and near the top and bottom of the binding.