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.

04248

Ronald Searle Roller Skater

Right now there's a lot of interest in the reportage work of Ronald Searle. An exhibition of the artist's original illustrations for Holiday magazine and for the American market in general is slated to open this November in San Francisco and should be brilliant. To help raise funds for this project, including shipping vintage Searle illustrations to San Francisco and producing an exhibition catalogue, many prominent animators have contributed original works of art inspired by Searle. There are currently multiple such works listed on eBay as well as a couple of German fountain pens that belonged to Searle himself and were donated to the auction by his estate.

There was, of course, a whimsical side to Searle's artwork as well. For example, this lithograph of an uninhibited roller skater is from the 1970 suite Meilleurs Voeux [Best Wishes] published by Michel Cassé, Paris. The suite consisted of five small lithographs trimmed from the usual 50 x 65 cm sheet and published in a numbered edition of 200 for the Galerie La Pochade in Paris. An additional seven were set aside for the printer and there were ten artist's proofs numbered in Roman numerals. The set of lithographs is Gurlitt no. 72 in the catalogue which erroneously gives the date of 1971 for the suite. The black-and-white 1971 catalogue illustrations as well as this eBay listing both support the 1970 date.

Ronald Searle, Meilleurs Voeux, 1970, 106/200, Gurlitt (1971) No. 72 (5)

Ronald Searle, Meilleurs Voeux, 1970, 106/200, Gurlitt (1971) No. 72 (5)

Ronald Searle Signature

Ronald Searle, Meilleurs Voeux, 1970, 106/200, Gurlitt (1971) No. 72 (5) Detail

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ronald-Searle-original-lithograph-1970-numbered-hand-signed-in-pencil-/111035564865?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&nma=true&si=VJo29%252F7WbHpl1SY9gWmnl4%252FkT80%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

Ronald Searle, Meilleurs Voeux, 1970, 106/200, Gurlitt (1971) No. 72 (5)

Note:  All the animators' original artwork and other items up for bidding on eBay to raise funds for the "Searle in America" exhibition can be viewed here.

The Searle in America blog is here.

Perpetua, the Ronald Searle tribute blog, is here.

My own Searle posts are all here.

0829