Larry Rivers and Terry Southern - The donkey and the darling, 1976, complete proof set

$15,000.00

(Larry Rivers) The donkey and the darling. A portfolio of 52 lithographs. Text by Terry Southern. U.L.A.E./Universal Limited Art Editions. 1976. 17.5” x 21”. On ivory handmade paper. Each sheet watermarked with signatures of both artist and author in the corners, plus the embossed U.L.A.E. blindstamp. Lithographic images and text are on the same sheets of French handmade paper. Each lithograph paginated in pencil on verso with initials ‘T.G.’ [Tatyana Grosman], with separate pages for the Table of Contents and the Colophon. Each of the plates includes text in Southern’s handwriting. Dedication page states ‘For Nile and for Gwynne & Emma’ (River’s wife and two children). The portfolio is enclosed in a three-sided wrapper.

Label on wrapper cover reads ‘Proof Set – Larry Rivers/Terry Southern.’ Housed in a new custom-made, moss-green cloth dropback box by Angela Scott. 19.5 ” x 23” x 3.5”. Blindstamped title on front. An edition of 35, plus 6 Artist’s Proofs and 3 Printer’s Proofs.

The complete Proof Set of this important work,which evolved over nine years of the artist’s prolific and innovative career [1968 -1977]. Prepared during the prime period of U.L.A.E., while it was producing the finest quality lithographic prints of that era.

Rivers (1923 - 2002) had limited interest in book illustrations, but “was intrigued with the idea of doing a fairy tale as parody … The resulting project … was the most difficult and expensive project ever undertaken by U.L.A.E … and required … 105 stones, with a total of 126 printings … for the images … 82 plates [310 printings] had been used for the text.” -Universal Limited Art Editions, A History and Catalogue: The first twenty-five years. 1989. Copies of this work are at the Museum of Modern Art, University of Texas at Austin, New York Public Library, Whitney Museum of American Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, as well as other important public and private collections.

Notes for the Proof Set:

Sheet #49 lacks the drawn-in lithographed mouse in upper right corner, as in image #109, page 500, of Sparks, E. Universal Limited Art Editions. A History and Catalogue: the First 25 Years. N.Y., Abrams, 1989.
Sheet #51 is missing a lithographed image of a bird in the middle bottom of sheet, as in image #111, page 501, Sparks.
Sheet #54 lacks an image of ‘Miss Darling’ in the middle bottom of sheet, plus coloured embellishments, as in image #114, page 502, Sparks.