Illustrator Ronald Searle's first cartoon cat collection was Searle's Cats (1967). It was followed by More Cats in 1975. In 1982, Ronald Searle's Big Fat Cat Book was published. The German language edition Großes Katzenbuch came out that same year. By coincidence, German journalist and author Ulrich Klever had published an informative book about cats with a similar title. Perhaps he reached out to Searle requesting a signed book, or maybe he sent a copy of his own book. Either could explain how it came about, in July of 1983, that Searle inscribed a copy of his book of drawings to Eva and Ulrich Klever, including a fine original cat drawing. Together, the couple had written a book about fondues. Ulrich had also written a book about walking sticks. Searle surely was aware of all this as he incorporated the book subjects in his personalization.
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| Ronald Searle's Großes Katzenbuch Inscribed "For Eva & Ulrich/Klever/with best wishes/Ronald Searle/July 1983" |
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| Ronald Searle's Großes Katzenbuch The illustration is Happy Ending, a hand-colored lithograph from 1975 |
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| The back cover is illustrated with Undercover (1981) |
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| Searle's full page drawing and inscription appears opposite the half title page illustration The Messenger. Searle has added the initials of the recipients to the banner. The auction and lot number are inscribed in pencil on the right. |
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| Happy Birthday to you! Hand-colored lithograph, 1974 |
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| Darling, this is bigger than both of us... Hand-colored lithograph, 1978 This book, the nicest Big Fat Cat Book I have seen, was sold at auction this past week in Berlin. |
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| Ronald Searle Galerie Bassenge auction listing Berlin, April 15, 2021 English rendered from the German by Google Translate |
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| Ronald Searle Galerie Bassenge auction listing accessed April 11, 2021 |
There were other, presumably later, German editions of the book. Here's one with Big Show on the cover:
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| Ronald Searle Big Show (1975) |
The above German edition is most similar to the book's English language edition which also has The Model on its cover:
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| https://www.biblio.com/book/ronald-searles-big-fat-cat-book/d/886847497 |
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| Ronald Searle The Model (1977) |
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| Ronald Searle Undercover (1981) Camden Graphics postcard 636 Image changed December 23, 2022 |
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