Happy Wednesday Everyone! And a happy birthday tomorrow to Willy Pogány...

Happy Wednesday Everyone! And a happy birthday tomorrow to Willy Pogány...

Wednesday, Aug 23, 2017 11:15 PM

Willy Pogány, was born in Szeged, Hungary, in 1882, and studied at the Budapest Technical University and also in Munich and Paris. His reputation as a muralist, painter and illustrator was well established in Paris, London and Munich before arriving in the United States in 1915, at the age of thirty-three. Skilled in an unusually wide range of media, he had won gold medals at exhibitions in Budapest, Leipzig, and at the Panama Pacific International Exhibition.
 
Among Pogány's many murals are those for the Heckscher Children's Theatre in New York City and the Niagara Falls Power Station. As a painter he did portraits of famous people in all walks of life. An expert on scenery design and lighting effects, Pogány also designed sets for ballets and operas, including "Le Coq d'Or," and for many films, such as Modern Times for Charlie Chaplin as well as animated cartoons based on his children's books.
 
Among his other artistic endeavors Pogány was an accomplished book illustrator. It was this phase of his career, especially as an illustrator of children's books - Pogány designed and illustrated more than 150 books. His illustrations include those for the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, and Wagners Trilogy, Tannhauser, Parsifal or the Legend of the Holy Grail and The Tale of Lohengrin. He also illustrated Sonnets from the Portuguese, The Song Celestial, The Adventures of Odysseus, Gulliver's Travels, and many others, both classic and original. His contemporaries include Edmund Dulac, Harry Rountree and N.C. Wyeth.
 
Working tirelessly right up until the end, Willy Pogány died on July 30th, 1955.
 

 David Brass Rare Books is pleased to present the following selection of Pogány items...

 
   
 
"Poetry that Children Love rather than
Poetry about Children that appeals to Adults"

[POGANY, Willy, illustrator]. HUFFARD, Grace Thompson, & CARLISLE, Laura Mae.

My Poetry Book… introduction by  Booth Tarkington. Chicago: The John C. Winston Company, [1934]. First edition. Octavo. Eight full page color plates and twenty-four full-page line drawings (included in pagination). Publishers blue cloth, front cover and spine decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt, top edge stained blue, pictorial endpapers. A very fine copy in the original pictorial dust jacket. (#02956)
Price: $250.00


   
    
De Luxe Parsifal
Exquisite Pogany
One of 525 Copies

POGANY, Willy, illustrator. ROLLESTON, T.W.

Parsifal or the Legend of the Holy Grail... London: Harrap, [1912]. Edition De Luxe, limited to 525 copies signed and numbered by the artist. Quarto. Unpaginated. Sixteen mounted color plates including frontispiece, many full page color and two-tone illustrations, each text leaf with elaborate pictorial borders. Publisher's full vellum, pictorially stamped in gilt. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Top board very slightly bowed. A fine copy. Housed in a blue cloth slipcase. (#03376)
Price: $1,950.00


      

First American Trade Edition

[POGANY, Willy, illustrator]. FITZGERALD, Edward.

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam... New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. [1910]. First American trade edition. Quarto. Twenty-four tipped-in color plates, including frontispiece, all mounted onto heavy stock card. Publisher's tan buckram over pictorial paper boards, spine decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt, top edge gilt, others uncut, pictorial endpapers. A few of the tipped-in color plates have a light crease on the lower corner and a couple of the heavy card mounts have been neatly repaired with archival tape. Otherwise this is a very fine copy in the original brown paper dust jacket decoratively printed in dark brown. Housed in a cloth slipcase. (#02957)
Price: $550.00


    
   
The Rubaiyat of Willy Pogany
One of 750 Signed Copies
And With an Original Signed Etching

[POGANY, Willy, illustrator]. FITZGERALD, Edward.

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam... London: George F. Harrap & Co., Ltd, 1930. Limited to 750 copies signed by the artist. Quarto. Twelve tipped-in color plates, including frontispiece. Head- tailpieces in black and white. With a black and white etching signed by Pogany in pencil opposite the title page. Publisher's full teal crushed morocco with gilt-stamped device with red and pale calf floral onlay. Gilt rules to spine head and foot, four raised bands, gilt lettering. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Neat ink presentation on front free-endpaper. A fine copy in the publishers original gray cardboard box with matching limitation number. (#02707)
Price: $2,250.00



   
First Revised American Trade Edition in the Original Box

[POGANY, Willy, illustrator]. FITZGERALD, Edward.

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam... New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, [1930]. First Revised American trade edition. Quarto. Twelve tipped-in color plates, including frontispiece. Text leaves additionally decorated with an additional 46 mounted black and gold illustrations and head and tailpieces in black and white. Publishers orange silk cloth, front cover lettered in gilt with black and gold illustration, spine decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt, top edge gilt, others uncut. Original decorative tan paper dust jacket printed in orange. Original tan cardboard box decoratively printed in dark brown. Ink signature on front pastedown. A very fine copy. With the original Thomas Y. Crowell eight-page leaflet describing the work of Willy Pogany loosely inserted. (#02958)
Price: $1,100.00


 
 
A Finely Bound Rubaiyat
Illustrated by Willy Pogany

POGANY, Willy, illustrator.

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam... Philadelphia: David McKay Co., [1942]. Small folio. Sixteen full-page and four smaller black & white drawings, all with decorative borders. Bound ca, 1942 by Maurin (stamp-signed in gilt on front turn-in). Full orange-brown morocco, covers ruled in gilt with a central 'arabesque' design surrounded by four richly gilt decorated corner pieces. Spine with four raised bands, decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt, gilt-ruled board edges, elaborate gilt turn-ins, marbled end-papers, top edge gilt.
Very slight crack (but perfectly sound) at top of front joint, otherwise near fine. (#03820)
Price: $950.00


 
 
An Exceptionally Fine Rubáiyát
Illustrated by Willy Pogany

POGANY, Willy, illustrator.

Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám... London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., [ca. 1916]. Later edition. Octavo. Text printed in blue and black. With sixteen tipped-in color plates within decorative borders by Willy Pogany, and numerous text illustrations printed in blue. Bound ca. 1916 in full brown polished calf, front cover elaborately bordered in gilt enclosing at the top, a circle divided into eight panels surrounding a 2 1/4 inch circle with an intricate floral design with green onlaid leaves. Smooth spine decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt with similar green onlaid leaves. The same design from the front cover repeated in blind on the lower cover, pale marbled end-papers, the front free end-paper excised, otherwise a very fine example. (#04179)
Price: $1,250.00


 
    
 One of Pogany's Masterpieces
Limited to 525 Copies Signed by the Artist

POGANY, Willy (illustrator). ROLLESTON, T.W. WAGNER, Richard.

The Tale of Lohengrin, Knight of the Swan... London: G.G. Harrap, n .d. [1913]. Limited to 525 copies signed by the artist. Quarto. Eight tipped-in color plates, numerous full page color illustrations, calligraphic text, head-tailpieces; an image on every page. Printed on heavy grey stock. Full vellum, pictorially gilt-stamped. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. A fine copy. Housed in a blue cloth slipcase. (#03377)
Price: $1,850.00



 
One of Pogany's Quintet of Masterpieces
Limited to 525 Copies

POGANY, Willy (illustrator).

Tannhauser... London: G.G. Harrap & Co., n.d. [1911]. Limited to 525 copies signed and numbered by the artist. Quarto. Sixteen mounted color plates including frontispiece, many full page two-tone illustrations, each page beautifully decorated. Full vellum, pictorially stamped in gilt. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. A fine copy with only a bit of light staining to spine. Housed in a blue cloth slipcase.(#03378)
Price: $1,950.00