Art & Architecture

Contact Alex Day or Andrea Mazzocchi

Art & Architecture encompasses a broad sweep of material, from early works concerning architecture and architectural history, and books and manuscripts on the fine arts and aesthetics, antiquities and archaeology, to pattern and design books, and private press books and fine bindings. The department also handles original artwork, artistic archives, posters, and propaganda material.

  1. [BODONI.] 

    D. Francesco Giacinto Rovero Cavaliere di Piea, e della Sagra Religione, ed Ordine Militare de’ Santi Morizio, e...

    Saluzzo, Giovandomenico Bodoni, [December 1783]. 

    Very rare survival, apparently unrecorded, of this bill of public order laws printed by Giovandomenico Bodoni at Saluzzo. 

    £1250

  2. PARLIAMENTARY RECRUITING COMMITTEE.

    Which? Have you a reason or only an excuse for not enlisting Now!

    London, The Abbey Press, 1915.

    A forthright call to the men of London, encouraging them to enlist for military service during World War One.

    £250

  3. [RALEIGH, Henry Patrick].

    Must children die and mothers plead in vain? Buy More Liberty Bonds.

    New York, Sakett & Wilhelms Corp., [1918].

    This poster was produced to for the sale of the third or fourth liberty loans in 1918, which saw the printing of 9 and 10 million promotional posters produced, respectively. The large-scale of the effort was seen to reflect a turning point in war advertising. As the US was an immigrant nation, the Federal...

    £400

  4. PIECK, Henri C.

    10 Dagen Die De Wereld Deden Wankelen.

    Amsterdam, Skovino, 1927.

    A rare lithograph of Pieck’s dramatic illustration for Ten Days that Shook the World (October in English), a silent film commissioned by the Soviet government to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the October Revolution. Made by the director of Battleship Potemkin (1925), Sergei Eisenstein, the...

    £300

  5. [FASCISM.]

    Ordinamento Corporativo dello Stato Fascista.

    Padua, Edizione di propaganda corporative, 1935.

    Italian Fascism primarily followed the economic model of corporatism to organise capital and labour interest groups into trade unions and employer associations such as agriculture, industry, commercial trade, professionals and artists, as well as banks and credit associations. These trade associations...

    £2500

  6. [NATIONAL SOCIALISM] [OCCUPIED FRANCE]

    Finis les mauvais jours! Papa gagne de l’argent en Allemagne! [The bad days are over!...

    [Paris], Office de Répartition de l´Affichage, 1943.

    Rare, encouraging the voluntary relocation of French workers from impoverished and semi-starved France to Germany factories.

    £350

  7. GANF, Iulii Abramovich, and P. PISKUNOV, editor.

    Да здравствует конституция страны социализма!...

    Moscow, Gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo izobrazitel’nogo iskusstva, 1953.

    Typically Soviet poster illustrated by graphic artist Iuli Ganf, whose satirical work was published in magazines and newspapers such as Krokodil.

    £700

  8. [PARIS UPRISING.]

    Votez toujours. Je ferai le reste [Always vote. I’ll do the rest].

    Paris, Comite d'initiative pour un movement revolutionnaire, Imprimerie Robert et Cie, 1968.

    First edition. A striking image of General De Gaulle patting France on the head for obediently voting, a baton cunningly concealed behind him. 1968 was a year when passions were flying high in France. The communist and socialist parties had formed an alliance in February with a view to replacing...

    £550

  9. DALI, Salvador.

    Alpes: French Railways.

    France, Draeger for SNCF, 1970.

    A gorgeous and colourful surrealist design of delicate butterflies fluttering against a rugged Alpine backdrop, one of six designs commissioned from Dali by SNCF, French national railways, to promote travel into the Alpine region.

    £250

  10. DALI, Salvador.

    Normandie. French Railways.

    France, Draeger for SNCF, 1970.

    Mont Saint-Michel meets stone circles, butterflies and surrealist heads in this promotional SNCF poster for train travel in Normandy.

    £200

  11. DALI, Salvador.

    Roussillon. French Railways.

    France, Draeger for SNCF, 1970.

    Further butterfly-interspersed surrealism for SNCF, this time for the Roussillon
    region, featuring a stylised cross of Languedoc above a beach scene against a
    mountainous backdrop

    £250

  12. DALI, Salvador.

    Alsace. French Railways.

    France, Draeger for SNCF, 1970.

    A striking monochrome image of the Temple Saint-Étienne, also known as the Cathedral of Mulhouse, against a murky sky. A vast butterfly blends into the foreground.

    £250

  13. VERTOGRADOV.

    За антиимпериалистическую солидарность, мир и прогресс! [For...

    Moscow, Izdatelstvo Plakat, 1975.

    A dramatic manifestation of the Soviet Union’s claim to be the foremost enemy of imperialism, and a vehement supporter of independence movements throughout the third world, as demonstrated here by the traditional dress of some of the figures in the background.

    £250

  14. BEISNER, Monika.

    Dante Alighieri: La Commedia in 100 tavole.

    Turin, Attini, 2021.

    Limited edition, one of 500 numbered sets, of Monika Beisner’s one hundred illustrations of the Divine Comedy, each accompanying one canto, conveying with remarkable fidelity the vivacity of Dante’s verse.

    £60