An interesting Austin Osman Spare item announced by Caduceus Books today:
Austin Osman Spare, Drawing Book
Original Drawing with reproductions of associated drawings in hand bound portfolio.
Vera Wainwright, a friend of Algernon Blackwood, Walter de la Mare and the Powys family, was introduced to Spare by Victor Neuburg. They became good friends and planned various joint projects. In 1943 Wainright moved to a cottage in Helford, near Helston in Cornwall. Spare visited her in 1944 and whilst there he drew for her this series of 24 drawings. The Cornish landscape must have been an unaccustomed experience for Spare, one wonders to what degree it influenced these images. Each drawing is 7ins x 10ins and is initialled by Spare, signalling that it is complete and finished. The original drawing is accompanied by the following:-
1) High quality coloured facsimile reproductions of all the drawings in the series printed onto 160gsm 100% cotton paper (10ins x 7ins).
2) High quality coloured facsimile reproduction (6ins x 5ins) on larger sheet of a pen drawing by Spare of himself and Wainwright. She is shown in regal profile, her face akin to a Spare mask, the lines entwining with his face below, looking out as a gnarled, horned devil.. Annotations in Spare’s hand name each figure.
3) Reproduction of cover of sketchbook showing inscription by Spare which locates the drawings in time and place and confirms that they were done by Spare for Wainwright.
4) One page introductory sheet describing Spare and Wainright and their relationship. This sheet reproduces photographs of both.
5) A sheet reproducing thumbnail images of the drawings recording the order of the of drawings.
All the above are enclosed in a handmade portfolio (10ins x 13ins) bound in half leather (a green basil sheepskin) and handmade marbled paper. The design being chosen as the chance pattern of marbling is sympathetic to the style of some of Spares automatic drawings. All components used are of archival quality. The portfolio has been bound by the Hellfire Club which produced the annotated Goetia in quarter leather binding which has become so highly sought after.
The price of each portfolio, including one of the original drawings, is UK Pounds 650 plus postage and insurance
The full text of the email is as follows:
Caduceus Books
28 Darley Road
Burbage
Hinckley
Leicestershire
LE10 2RL
England, U.K.
Private premises, visitors welcome by appointment
Tel. 01455 250542 (+44 1455 250542 from abroad) Fax. 0870 0552982 (+44 870 0552982 from abroad) Webpages http://www.caduceusbooks.com
http://www.occultartgallery.com
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Austin Osman Spare, Drawing Book
Original Drawing with reproductions of associated drawings in hand bound portfolio.
Vera Wainwright, a friend of Algernon Blackwood, Walter de la Mare and the Powys family, was introduced to Spare by Victor Neuburg. They became good friends and planned various joint projects. In 1943 Wainright moved to a cottage in Helford, near Helston in Cornwall. Spare visited her in 1944 and whilst there he drew for her this series of 24 drawings. The Cornish landscape must have been an unaccustomed experience for Spare, one wonders to what degree it influenced these images. Each drawing is 7ins x 10ins and is initialled by Spare, signalling that it is complete and finished. The original drawing is accompanied by the following:-
1) High quality coloured facsimile reproductions of all the drawings in the series printed onto 160gsm 100% cotton paper (10ins x 7ins).
2) High quality coloured facsimile reproduction (6ins x 5ins) on larger sheet of a pen drawing by Spare of himself and Wainwright. She is shown in regal profile, her face akin to a Spare mask, the lines entwining with his face below, looking out as a gnarled, horned devil.. Annotations in Spare’s hand name each figure.
3) Reproduction of cover of sketchbook showing inscription by Spare which locates the drawings in time and place and confirms that they were done by Spare for Wainwright.
4) One page introductory sheet describing Spare and Wainright and their relationship. This sheet reproduces photographs of both.
5) A sheet reproducing thumbnail images of the drawings recording the order of the of drawings.
All the above are enclosed in a handmade portfolio (10ins x 13ins) bound in half leather (a green basil sheepskin) and handmade marbled paper. The design being chosen as the chance pattern of marbling is sympathetic to the style of some of Spares automatic drawings. All components used are of archival quality. The portfolio has been bound by the Hellfire Club which produced the annotated Goetia in quarter leather binding which has become so highly sought after.
The price of each portfolio, including one of the original drawings, is UK Pounds 650 plus postage and insurance as follows (in UK Pounds)
UK 5.80
Europe airmail 10.10
Rest of the world airmail 15.15
As ever all orders are being dealt with in strict order of receipt
Effectively this is a new Spare first edition, though limited to only 24 copies and each has an original drawing. Spare himself enclosed an original drawing as a bookplate with the 50 deluxe copies of Anthema of Zos. These were “vibratory” portraits showing the aura around the head. Interestingly, following Spare’s trip to the countryside to visit Vera Wainrwight, Spare some of these drawings portray a similar vibratory aura around the landscape.
Images of the drawings and the portfolio can be found here:-
http://www.cadu.demon.co.uk/occultart/working/porttext.html
The drawings are as follows:-
Drawing 1
Pencil and coloured chalk. Anthropomorphic tree boughs
Drawing 2
Pencil and coloured chalk. In the foreground a megalith with a human face arises from the earth looking over its shoulder. Behind him figures crowd, perhaps in adoration. Behind all stand rocks and a mountain with visible vibratory aura
Drawing 3
Pencil and coloured chalk. A man megalith, his nose broken and eyes blank is accompanied by two birds, perhaps a squawking crow and crane There also appears an astral crane and a figure swirling into manifestation. Perhaps a crane woman?
Drawing 4
Pencil and coloured chalk. Anthropomorphic-phallic tree bough stands before jagged rocks
Drawing 5
Pencil and coloured chalk. Tree boughs rise up, their branches meshing together in a bundle. Two finely drawn heads, one being horned, emerge from rock whilst another head, with an impassive expression, sits on a rock altar.
Drawing 6
Pencil. A tree-like figure and fungi-like form emerges from a jumble of heads
Drawing 7
Pencil. A claw-footed bird woman appears to be conversing with a sphinx-like figure melting into rock. A finely drawn horned face looks on from behind one of three tree figures
Drawing 8
Pencil and coloured chalk. A group of figures with finely drawn faces and masks, one being horned look out. Behind and above them looms a transformative being, her torso twisted around so she faces forward, her legs backward, her stumpy arms changing to wings
Drawing 9
Pencil. Anthropomorphic trees twist and arise amid rocks. The finely drawn head of a bearded patriarch looks out.
Drawing 10
Pencil and coloured chalk. A female figure stands amongst anthropomorphic trees, she is accompanied by a male figure but it is unclear whether he is man, tree or stone.
Drawing 11
Pencil. This one has a title, in the bottom left corner Spare has written the word “Hate” Out of dancing lines, strange tree boughs arise and mesh and in the branches two faces go head to head.
Drawing 12
Pencil. Anthropomorphic tree-figures rise. From the branches a breasted lizard monster with twisted limbs sends out her tongue which turns to fire
Drawing 13
Pencil. Not wholly incarnate trees arise from the ground, behind broken rocks have finely drawn human faces, An enigmatic man kneels on the ground whilst another stands twisting his arm behind his head in a characteristic Spare gesture.
Drawing 14
Pencil. In the foreground a bird looks out. Behind it tree-like forms rise up but seem less than fully incarnate. One morphs into an astral head.
Drawing 15
Pencil and coloured chalk. A man hails a stone figure, one of a number that appear to be emerging from the landscape
Drawing 16
Pencil and coloured chalk. Tree bough and rock with human faces emerge from the rocky landscape which hums with a vibratory coloured aura
Drawing 17
Pencil and coloured chalk. A finely drawn satyr hails something we cannot see, disjointed female figures, their bodies one with the landscape, share his gaze. Behind them rises a behemoth, part giant rock, part beast with finely drawn horned head.
Drawing 18
Pencil. Rocks, some drawn with the shimmering line which for Spare perhaps suggests something slipping into (or out of) manifestation. The lines suggest a writhing figure.
Drawing 19
Pencil and coloured chalk. Anthropomorphic tree boughs, their branches becoming arms twisted behind the head in a typical Spare gesture, arise from a stony landscape beneath the quarter moon. One is pawed by a grotesque satyr-like animal.
Drawing 20
Pencil. Ethereal beings with finely drawn faces push up into the sky, looking back at a male figure who may be dying.. Above them a mask being (a soul?) trails through the air
Drawing 21
Pencil and coloured chalk. Anthropomorphic trees rise up out of the landscape, one catches a face from the wind (see preceding drawing) in its branches
Drawing 22
Pencil and coloured chalk. Anthropomorphic tree boughs and stones arise from the landscape whilst a figure of uncertain identity looks on. He melts into the landscape and his face melts into his body.
Drawing 23
Pencil. Finely drawn quatych of faces atop a rock torso stands as a form bursts out of the ground into manifestation, its nature as yet unclear.
Drawing 24
Pencil. Two columns of thereal lines rise up into manifestation. One gives rise to a body with breasts which twists back into a Janus head and then shimmers up into a monkey head. The other rises, perhaps from mushrooms into swirling shapes reminiscent of buds opening. Man/animal and plant life forces perhaps?
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