Azbuka v Kartinakh.

One of the most outstanding examples of Russian book illustration.

First edition of Benois' masterpiece Azbuka v Kartinakh, which has always been in high demand among bibliophiles as its circulation was extremely limited. The 35 (including title) chromolithographic illustrations of dolls, toys, animals and children each correspond to an alphabetic character.

The letter 'A' stands for 'Arap' (Moor in Russian) who takes the reader on a journey through scenes of aristocratic balls, theatre productions and fairytales and at the end the same character appears stating (whilst correcting himself), 'I have learnt to read and write in Russian'. The same character appears in the ballet Petrouchka.

Each page is charming and displays all of Benois' interests the theatre, folk toys, fantasies, interiors, fairytales and architecture. There is evidently a lot of care and attention in each illustration, perhaps because he had imagined this idealised world as a way to teach his own to read.

This copy is a finely bound using the same design as the cover and is signed and inscribed by Benois on the upper flyleaf. Even in the author's lifetime the work became a rarity. It is signed 1930 but in 1958, two years before he died he wrote that he in fact couldn't get hold of a copy anywhere and had to borrow one belonging to his daughter.