The Aristocracy of Art. An address before the California Art Club Open Forum, Los Angeles. March 4, 1929.
Los Angeles: Jake Zeitlin, 1929. One of 500 copies printed for Jake Zetilin by the Mayers Company in Los Angeles. The present work is the first book authored and designed by Armitage, Jake Zeitlin’s first imprint, and one of the first books to feature Grant Dahlstrom’s name. Note that Zeitlin also published Los Angeles in the Sunny Seventies in the same year, though that work was published in the fall of 1929 and the present work was published in June. With title-page woodcut by Grace Marion Brown and typography by Grant Dahlstrom. Wrappers cracking at spine. Chip missing from corner at spine. Offsetting from title-page onto blank flyleaf. Some offsetting from text. Still a very good copy of a work that Ward Ritchie called “a landmark, stimulating an outburst of creativity in Los Angeles.” With the scarce prospectus. Original black paper wrappers with printed paper label. 7 x 10." 12] pp. Item #16913
Ward Ritchie wrote that “Jake Zeitlin’s was the gathering spot for most of the younger writers, artists and printers of [Los Angeles]. Merle Armitage was perhaps the most dynamic and outspoken of this group. His talk before the California Art Club on March 4, 1929, was the stimulus and spark that ignited a small cultural awakening in the Los Angeles of the early thirties.”.
“Merle Armitage (1893 - 1975) was the leading force in modern book design in America during the period 1930 – 1950,” (William Dailey). Armitage’s most important works included Jean Charlot’s Picture Book, which he printed, and his books on artists like Rockwell Kent, Henrietta Shore, Edward Weston, Richard Day, Eugen Meier-Kreig, Millard Sheets, Boris Lovet-Lorski, and more. “He designed these books in an entirely new vein…His use of large type combined with spacious leading and his two-page design spreads gave his books a drama and impact previously unseen,” (William Dailey. Dailey Rare Books Website, "Comprehensive Collection of Merle Armitage's Book Designs."). Ritchie, Ward. Merle Armitage: His Love and Many Lives, pp. 6-7. Marks, Robert. Merle Armitage Bibliography, p. 31.
Price: $350.00