Our next auction will feature a large section dedicated to the great Italian art and literary works of the twentieth-century, opening with one of the finest copies ever sold of the first edition of Fortunato Depero’s Libro imbullonato (Bolted book), so-called because of its characteristic cover. “Bolted together like an engine, dangerous, as a projectile of a weapon, it’s absolutely impossible to classify and can’t merely be left on the bookcase [...] but should be gently laid on a soft, colourful but resistant cushion” as described by its author. The book is a masterpiece containing the transcription of a text into the free typographical distortion of words and represents the greatest graphical expression of the futurist movement and their love of speed, cars, means of communication and transport, cinema, and advertising. Our catalogue also includes a splendid copy of 96 colour illustrations for the Italian working men’s leisure and culture association printed in 1938 also by Depero, an extremely rare work which has only gone under the hammer twice in the last 30 years.

The section of our catalogue dedicated to the twentieth-century includes other futurist books, such as two signed volumes by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti with dedications to his friend Angelo Sodini, called an “unforgettable futuristic interventionist lyrical context”: the first edition of La Conquête des Etoiles and Il poema africano (African poem), Milan, Mondadori, 1937. Also by Marinetti, the first edition of his famous manifesto on interventionist action, Guerra sola igiene del mondo (War – the world’s only hygiene) which glorifies conflict as a festive and vital exuberance of human existence. As well as numerous rare first editions, including works by Settimelli, Papini and Corra, Art is the most represented in the modern books section, with works by Gian Pietro Lucini (La piccola Chelidonio of 1922 illustrated by Achille Funi), books on art by Ardengo Soffici (the second edition of Cubismo e futurismo [Cubism and Futurism]), Umberto Boccioni (The complete works with a preface by Marinetti and a first edition of Pittura Scultura Futuriste-Dinamismo plastico [Plastic Futurist-Dynamism Sculpture and Painting] dating back to 1914) and Carlo Carrà’s Pittura metafisica [Metaphysical painting] Firenze, Vallecchi, 1919.

Carrà’s essay introduces the other historical period of modern Italian art, the metaphysical movement, represented in the catalogue with one of the most intriguing artists books ever produced by Giorgio De Chirico, his renowned Apocalisse (Apocalypse) of 1941. This volume, one of the only 150 printed, has a double suite of 20 original lithographs printed by hand by Piero Fornasetti, some handcoloured under the direction of De Chirico. In the essay published for an exhibition dedicated to Apocalypse in 2012, the curator Elena Pontiggia describes the work as “characterised by an atmosphere of tranquil serenity, childlike candour, with iconographic stylistic elements which are more fanciful than frightening” the true expression of that powerful, visionary and dream-like style so typical of our Pictor Optimus.

By Cristiano Collari