Louder Than Words

49 DELAUNAY, Sonia. Ses peintures, ses objets, ses tissus simultanês, ses modes. Paris: Librairie Des Arts Décoratifs, [1925] the queen of the 20th-century avant-garde First edition, first printing, inscribed by the artist on the front pastedown: “à monsieur Bernard Nevill, Sonia Delaunay, 23–9–69”. Nevill (1930–2019) was design director for Liberty Prints from 1961, during which time Delaunay produced many designs for Liberty. One of the most prominent and innovative artists of the Paris avant-garde in the early 1900s, Delaunay’s greatest success came in 1925, at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, for which she designed and decorated her Boutique Simultanée. This lavishly illustrated volume was published in order to coincide with

50 DENYS-BURTON RADCLIFFE, Marjorie. Three hand- and typewritten accounts of Berlin, London, and Tripoli on the eve of the Second World War. 1937–39 “who could have believed i should have lived to see another war? . . . it’s mad, crazy, hellish” Detailed, ironic, and often humorous documents detailing English, German, and Libyan society on the eve of the Second World War. Here, Lady Denys-Burton describes a period of tumult and crisis with remarkable insight from the vantage point of her diplomatic appointments to Germany and Italian- controlled Libya. Marjorie Sophia Denys-Burton, later Radcliffe (1892–1973) was the daughter of Sir Francis Denys-Burton, 3rd Baronet. In 1922, she married Joseph Radcliffe (“J.F.” in the accounts). The present collection of her writings comprises: i) Denys-Burton’s account of visiting Berlin with her husband for the 11th World Dairy Congress, 22–28 August 1937. They arrive in Berlin on 20 August: “From every window hangs the red flags with the black swastika on a white ground, the day is absolutely still . . . It seems to give a curious sinister effect”. The congress opens on 22 August. She sits next to the British embassy’s commercial secretary who has an interesting take on the Nazi hierarchy: “he tells me he rather likes Hitler . . . Goring, and Goebbels are the two evil influences”. On 23 August she visits a ‘Mutter Schule’ or school for German mothers, where women are taught to be “efficient in everything and unselfish”. Two days later, she visits a “labour camp” for girls, who are “to learn good comradeship as advocated by the Führer”. In the evening, she dines with other delegates and diplomats. In conversation about the “labour camp” the Councillor of the Argentine Legation notes: “They will show you nothing but of the very best. It is impossible to get the truth here”. She concludes her stay in Berlin on 28 August: “After a rough and rather unpleasant

passage, we reach the shores of England . . . ‘Thank God I was born British’”. ii) “The Crisis 1938”. London, 26–30 September 1938. This narrates the days leading up to the conclusion of the Munich Agreement, and London’s war preparations. Twice she references the famous speech Hitler made on 26 September, threatening Czechoslovakia with war over the annexation of Sudetenland. On 30 September they listen to the announcement of the Munich Agreement, in a “breathless” state. “And thus ends a week of history”. iii) Tripoli, 13–17 March 1939. A lively account of the couple’s attendance at the Eighth International Congress of Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture in fascist Libya, under the governorship of Italo Balbo. The narrative includes a mischievous paragraph on Balbo’s opening speech: “Balbo marches in to the sound of Giovenezza whilst the fascists cheer wildly and cry ‘Duce! Duce! Duce!’ Balbo has a short brown beard and very bright eyes. I am told he is a devil with the ladies”. On 15 March, Balbo hosts a dinner for the delegates: “His Excellency Marshal Balbo shakes us by the hand . . . J.F. whispers to me that the Commander of the Italian forces in Tripoli . . . was very outspoken and said, ‘When are these Germans going to stop?’”. The couple head for England on 17 March, with J.F. not thinking “much of what the congress is accomplishing”. Comprising 3 groups of documents: 1) quarto, 40ff, typescript, text on rectos only, numbered, heavily corrected in manuscript, and with an additional leaf and “33a”, and missing pages 7, 22 and 23, leaf 13 marked “Ancien Regime”; 2) octavo, 24ff, sometime removed from notebook, handwritten in ink rectos only, leaves numbered in pencil; 3) quarto, 13ff, typescript, text on rectos only, numbered, heavily corrected in manuscript, stapled top left with final leaf loose, and with a further 19ff, comprising redrafts of the same text, some in duplicate. Group 1: slight rust marks and loss to top edges from paperclip sometime removed, p. 25 neatly torn away after second paragraph, p. 30 with loss from burning, lightly creased, small nicks. Group 2: ink blots to fore edge of a few leaves not affecting text. Group 3: lightly toned, minor staining and creasing with extremities nicked. £3,500 [134745]

the display of her designs. “Delaunay transported modernist aesthetics onto the body through a very modern medium: fashion . . . Taking her inspiration from popular culture as well as from her native Ukrainian folklore, she was encouraged in her undertakings by Marc Chagall, who, from a similar ethnic and cultural background, was working in Paris in those years and had become a close friend of Delaunay’s husband, Robert. Delaunay was among the earliest fashion designers, if not the first, who came close to approaching the prét-à-porter system of production, thanks to the pochoir (stencil) technique. Had she pursued it, this technique would have allowed mass production of her designs without loss of tonal integrity” (Giorcelli & Rabinowitz, pp. 38–9). In 1964 she became the first living female artist to have a retrospective exhibition at the Louvre, and in 1975 was named an officer of the French Legion of Honor. Folio. Original decorated boards, covers lettered in black, silver wire ties. Text and prints unbound as issued. 20 pochoir coloured plates of costume and textile designs. Sheet sizes: 38 × 56 cm. Boards darkened with small splits to spine corners, text gathering lightly foxed, plates a little age toned, one nicked to one edge, otherwise all bright images. ¶ Cristina Giorcelli & Paula Rabinowitz, eds, Accessorizing the Body: Habits of Being I , 2011. £15,000 [159354]

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk

LOUDER THAN WORDS

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