AN ARCHIVE OF 59 "CUBIST" BOOKS FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA 1909 - 1930

"Cubist" or more correctly "angular" book design from Czechoslovakia was a short-lived but significant typographic and book design movement which became dominant in the region from 1909 to around 1930. Led by a few academic figures such as Professor J. Benda and his colleagues: Brunner, Kysela and Hoffman; the stated purpose of the group was to introduce a cubistic / modernist sensibility into the growing Czech publishing industry and encourage the consideration of fine printing as being an aspect of fine art. They were indeed remarkably successful in both aims and their influence was felt for many years both before and after the war.

Here we offer for sale 59 examples of Cubist books. Some are very significant examples of the genre and others were (in addition to their design significance) important literary works in their  own right (such as some examples of works by S.Neumann offered herein). Some are signed and/or from numbered  editions.
Examples of most of the significant "Cubist" designers are to be found here - and some of the books cited as anonymous are quite likely to be by  "known" designers in an uncredited capacity working as "in-house" saleried designers. Condition varies - many of the books offered here were produced for mass consumption at a time when the new ways of manufacturing were replacing the older, hand-made ways and often poor quality paper was used in production in order to keep costs down. That being said the majority of items offered here are in very good condition and all significant flaws are noted in the  book descriptions.

The collection is for sale as a whole although we may be willing to split  the collection up and sell individual books - please enquire.

Because of the size of the collection we have created an illustrated pdf catalogue of the group which can be requested by email. Do enquire if interested.