£1,750.00
Author: Arnold Haskell.
Publisher: London Collins 1950 [and] 1952.
First editions. Baron at the Ballet No. 32 of only 50 copies bound for the author, and signed by Baron in ink. Baron Encore No. 203 or 250 signed by Baron and Arnold Haskell, in the deluxe binding for copies bound for the author.
4to., two volumes, specially bound in blue and red full morocco, single gilt line border, lettered in gilt on spine, in patterned paper slipcases.
Baron at the Ballet - Illustrated on every page with black and white photographs, many full page, and with 8 full-colour plates including a frontispiece of a very young Margot Fonteyn as Agathe in “Les Desmoiselles de la Nuit”. Baron at the Ballet covers the Russian ballet from 1933 to 1950 with chapters on Sadler’s Wells, The Ballet Theatre, Nouveaux Ballets de Monte Carlo, Ballet Rambert. Pages 175-193 features a gallery of full and partial page portraits of important dancers including Toumanova, Massine, Nana Gollner, André Eglevsky, Maria Tallchief, and many others. There is also a full study of Roland Petit’s production of Carmen pp 195-211. The photographs in colour have a great deal of brilliance especially the photo of Tamara Toumanova in Don Quichotte.
Baron Encore - fully illustrated with full and half-page black and white plates, as well as, four colour plates including one of Margot Fonteyn in Swan Lake and one of Katherine Dunham and Vanoye Aikens in L’Ag’ya. With chapters on Yvette Chauviré, the Paris Opera Ballet, Sadler’s Wells as it developed, the New York City Ballet, Danish Ballet.
Ref: Leslie p23-24 (not mentioning the specially bound limited editions).