WARHOL, ANDY
A Gold Book. [New York: Privately printed, 1957]. First edition, comprising the complete set of 19 offset lithographed plates, copy number 6 of 100 signed by Andy Warhol on the colophon. Original gold boards with plain endpapers. The boards 14 5/8 x 11 5 /8 inches (37 x 30 cm); the plates 14 1/2 x 11 1/4 inches (36.2 x 28.6 cm). Complete with 22 pages including the title page, two blanks, and 19 offset lithographed plates. Of the plates, 13 are printed on gold paper and 6 on wove paper (5 of which are hand-colored), the original colored tissue guards laid-in, the printed title lettering by Warhol's mother Julia Warhola on the recto of the manuscript colophon. This copy likely once had an additional lithograph pasted to the cover (known in some copies) but no longer present, the gold prints with some measure of finger-soiling, common with this book, mostly confined to the lower right corners and more prevalent at front, the plates on wove paper very fine and well colored, the binding with wear and small losses along extremities.
A complete copy of Andy Warhol's A Gold Book, one of his most compelling large format early books. This copy includes the manuscript colophon on the reverse of the title reading this is #6 of a limited edition of 100 copies signed by the artist / Andy Warhol / Dedicated to Boys Filles fruits and flowers Shoes and T.C. [Ted Carey] & W. [Ed Wallowitch} / Book designed by Georgie Duffee. A fragile and stunning production, A Gold Book was produced by Warhol to promote his graphic work and was sent out at Christmas 1957. The gold aesthetic of the book was apparently conceived while traveling in Bangkok with Charles Lisanby (contributor to Warhol's 1954 25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy). Particularly impressed by the gold-leaf lacquered furniture seen in Thailand, Warhol began his series of collages known as The Golden Shoes which incorporated gold leaf into their design. But "unlike his gilded shoes, the subjects of Warhol's A Gold Book now had a sobriety and lyrical bent that were meant to flag their more serious artistic ambitions. Warhol provided drawings based on socially conscious photojournalism - including a begging child in China - while he kept males and females in some kind of balance and limited his erotica to a male rear end that could have come from any life-drawing class" (Blake Gopnik, Warhol, 2020, p. 168). Outside of the gold prints, which include shoes, the portrait of James Dean, the Chinese child and the aforementioned rear end, the most desirable prints in the book, here in excellent condition, are those hand-colored on wove paper including Hand with Flowers and the untitled Man with Rose and Flowers. Feldman & Schellmann IV.106-124
Sold for $17,500
Estimated at $10,000 - $15,000
Includes Buyer's Premium
WARHOL, ANDY
A Gold Book. [New York: Privately printed, 1957]. First edition, comprising the complete set of 19 offset lithographed plates, copy number 6 of 100 signed by Andy Warhol on the colophon. Original gold boards with plain endpapers. The boards 14 5/8 x 11 5 /8 inches (37 x 30 cm); the plates 14 1/2 x 11 1/4 inches (36.2 x 28.6 cm). Complete with 22 pages including the title page, two blanks, and 19 offset lithographed plates. Of the plates, 13 are printed on gold paper and 6 on wove paper (5 of which are hand-colored), the original colored tissue guards laid-in, the printed title lettering by Warhol's mother Julia Warhola on the recto of the manuscript colophon. This copy likely once had an additional lithograph pasted to the cover (known in some copies) but no longer present, the gold prints with some measure of finger-soiling, common with this book, mostly confined to the lower right corners and more prevalent at front, the plates on wove paper very fine and well colored, the binding with wear and small losses along extremities.
A complete copy of Andy Warhol's A Gold Book, one of his most compelling large format early books. This copy includes the manuscript colophon on the reverse of the title reading this is #6 of a limited edition of 100 copies signed by the artist / Andy Warhol / Dedicated to Boys Filles fruits and flowers Shoes and T.C. [Ted Carey] & W. [Ed Wallowitch} / Book designed by Georgie Duffee. A fragile and stunning production, A Gold Book was produced by Warhol to promote his graphic work and was sent out at Christmas 1957. The gold aesthetic of the book was apparently conceived while traveling in Bangkok with Charles Lisanby (contributor to Warhol's 1954 25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy). Particularly impressed by the gold-leaf lacquered furniture seen in Thailand, Warhol began his series of collages known as The Golden Shoes which incorporated gold leaf into their design. But "unlike his gilded shoes, the subjects of Warhol's A Gold Book now had a sobriety and lyrical bent that were meant to flag their more serious artistic ambitions. Warhol provided drawings based on socially conscious photojournalism - including a begging child in China - while he kept males and females in some kind of balance and limited his erotica to a male rear end that could have come from any life-drawing class" (Blake Gopnik, Warhol, 2020, p. 168). Outside of the gold prints, which include shoes, the portrait of James Dean, the Chinese child and the aforementioned rear end, the most desirable prints in the book, here in excellent condition, are those hand-colored on wove paper including Hand with Flowers and the untitled Man with Rose and Flowers. Feldman & Schellmann IV.106-124
Auction: Rare Books, Autographs & Maps, May 11, 2023