50 172. JoyCe, James. Bronze of James Joyce’s Death Mask. Cast at The Birmingham Bronze Foundry. 2000.
21 inches in height overall on a plinth of Kilkenny granite, the plinth carved by Belinda eade with the inscription “JaMes JoYce 1882-1941”.
limited edition of nine numbered bronzes, this one of two additional artist’s Proof copies marked “aP1”.
in the early hours of January 13, 1941 James Joyce died in a swiss hospital. his wife nora, son georgio, and friend carola gideon-Welcker rushed to his bedside, but arrived moments too late. Perhaps as a means of assuaging their grief, gideon-Welcker suggested to nora Joyce that a death mask be made of her husband. nora consented and the sculptor Paul speck was commissioned by gideon-Welcker, making two plaster negatives of Joyce’s visage either that afternoon or the following day. Joyce was buried on January 15th 1941.
Both original plaster masks were presented by speck to gideon-Welker, who retained the pair until the late 1950s. a third plaster mask by speck, however, was made contemporaneously and quite possibly without nora’s or gideon- Welcker’s knowledge. it remains unknown whether speck made three negatives from Joyce or if he used one of the originals as a mould to produce the third. What is certain is that edmund Brauchbar, a swiss Jew and one-time pupil of Joyce’s in Zurich, acquired a plaster death mask in January 1942. the paperwork required to facilitate the shipment indicates that Paul speck had produced the mask and that it was valued at 300 swiss francs. Brauchbar, who was living in Forest hills, new York at the time, subsequently gifted the mask to the united states library of congress on april 19, 1946, where it resides today.
the next chapter in the story of Joyce’s death mask becomes somewhat circuitous and convoluted. up to six additional plaster masks were apparently made by a swiss sculptor Victor Dallo under the direction of Paul speck. When these castings were made is unknown, but it is reasonable to suggest that they were completed in the early to mid 1950s from one of the two original casts and with gideon-Welcker’s consent as these six plaster masks are identical to speck’s original. the present location of four of these six can be identified: Zentralbibliotheck Zurich, university of lausanne, university of Basle, and gekoski Booksellers in london.
the provenance of the last of these can be traced back directly to gideon-Welcker. in 1958 she gifted one of the original masks together with a later plaster, presumably one of the six, to Michael scott, an irish architect who established the James Joyce tower at sandycove. (the second original plaster mask was donated to the international James Joyce centre in Zurich in 1985). scott subsequently gave the later plaster mask to the film director John huston as a token of his appreciation for his efforts to establish the museum. tony huston then acquired the mask from his father in 1972 when the family house in ireland was sold. the mask traded hands again in 2000 and it is now owned by london antiquarian bookdealers gekoski rare Books.
at some stage during his tenure, Michael scott took a mould from his original to produce seven bronze masks, none of which were intended for sale. this edition of 9 numbered bronzes is taken from the later plaster cast given by scott to huston, now owned by gekoski rare Books.
£7,500
173
173.Kearton, richard and Cherry. With nature and a camera. Being the adventures and observations of a field naturalist and an animal photographer. Cassell and Company, Ltd. 1899.
£100
8vo. original green cloth, gilt lettering and illustration of a climber to front, gilt lettering and vignette to spine; pp. xvi + 386 + [4, ads.], illustrated throughout with b&w photographs by cherry Kearton; spine sunned, small circular stain to right bottom corner of front board, frontispiece somewhat spotted, otherwise very good. Provenance: signed by richard and Cherry Kearton to ffep, with bookplate of Henry Wemyss Fielden to front pastedown. Fielden (1838 - 1921) was best known as the naturalist on sir george nares’s 1875 northern Polar expedition on board Alert.
Fifth thousand. this entertaining book includes sections on st. Kilda, gamekeepers, duck decoys and the sleeping habits of birds.
174
175
174. Keay, John. india. a history. London: Memminger MedienCentrum AG, Memmingen for The Folio Society, 2003. £95
8vo (245 x 168mm), 2 volumes. original red and green cloth by real- lachenmaier, reutlingen ‘blocked with a design by Frances Button based on a silk embroidery from tamil nadu, mid-nineteenth century’, original slipcase with applied illustration on upper panel, gold-and-green endpapers; pp. i: [i]-xxx, [xxxi-xxxii (dedication, verso blank)], [1]-331, [332 (blank)], [4 (blank ll.)]; ii: [i]-x, [xi-xii (maps and charts and tables)], [333]-670, [2 (blank)]; 32 colour-printed and monochrome plates with illustrations printed recto-and-verso, maps and plans (15 full-page) and diagrams and tables in the text (7 full-page), after reginal Piggott; a fine set.
First Folio society edition; the text is based on the original one-volume edition issued in 2000, with ‘minor emendations and revisions’, and all the maps, charts and diagrams were re-drawn for this edition by Piggott. the Folio society’s edition of this authoritative and comprehensive account by the highly-regarded historian Keay — who won the royal society for asian affairs’ sir Percy sykes’ Memorial Medal for his literary contribution to asian studies — was reprinted twice in 2004.
Folio 60, no. 1149
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96