Toni and Louis Schwartz's Copy of Ronald Searle's Bibliothèque Nationale Catalogue

The catalogue for Ronald Searle's 1973 exhibition at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) is fully illustrated in black and white, not too bad considering there was almost no catalogue at all. The limited edition catalogue numbered 40 of 100 was personalized by the artist for his friends Toni (Searle also spells it Tony) and Louis Schwartz, signed twice with an original drawing of a cat, making this indeed a very special book. It was priced last year at 114 Euros on AbeBooks. 

The catalogue's cover illustration is The Greedy Carpet, a rejected New Yorker cover submission. This original artwork was stolen during the exhibition along with two other pieces.

A lithograph was included in the sale, a 1970 artist's proof from the suite Meilleurs Voeux, the fifth of five small images from the series. Like the catalogue, it is personalized for Dr. and Madame Schwartz.

Meilleurs Voeux, 1970
Epreuve Artiste X/X aside from the edition of 200, Gurlitt (1971) No. 72 (5)
Ronald Searle

Sampson Demolishing the Temple (1969)
Hommage à Toulouse-Lautrec
Ronald Searle

Ronald Searle

AbeBooks listing accessed April 10, 2022

https://www.abebooks.com/signed/Ronald-Searle/31155949779/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=viewbook_low

Note:  For more on the 1973 Searle BnF catalogue, see Matt Jones's Perpetua post "BNF 1973" here.

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