Lot 327: NARBUT, Georgii Ivanovich (1886-1920). Chetyrnadtsat risunkov Ukrainskoi Azbuki . [14 Drawings for a Ukrainian Alphabet.] St. Petersburg: 'Golike and Vil'borg', 1921. 2° (330 x 245mm). Lithographed additional title and 13 lithographed plates.

NARBUT, Georgii Ivanovich (1886-1920). Chetyrnadtsat risunkov Ukrainskoi Azbuki. [14 Drawings for a Ukrainian Alphabet.] St. Petersburg: 'Golike and Vil'borg', 1921. 2° (330 x 245mm). Lithographed additional title and 13 lithographed plates. Original blue wrappers printed in black, yapp edges (light soiling and light wear). Provenance: Ivan Mikhailovich Stepanov (ad nominem copy) -- S. L. Markov (bookplate) -- Russian bookseller (small stamp).

FIRST EDITION, AN EXCELLENT COPY OF NARBUT'S MASTERPIECE, PRINTED FOR IVAN MIKHAILOVICH STEPANOV, and later in the S.L. Markov collection. Rare: only 30 copies were printed and sent to 'the greatest and most active figures in the Arts of the new age' (Mir Iskustva). Ivan Stepanov (1857-1941) was an important figure in the Russian Silver Age, and a great philanthropist and collector. Mir Iskustva, Palace Editions 1998, 340; Rats Collection 73; Rossiiskaia Gosudarstvennaia Biblioteka, Klassika, 2006, pp.216-7; Vengerov, V nekotorom tsarstve, 169.