La Septieme face du dé - The Die's Seventh Face.

Paris: Jeanne Bucher, 1936. 4to.; printed on blue paper; illustrated throughout in b&w, some with color. Illustrated wrappers; publisher’s printed prospectus laid in. Designed by Marcel Duchamp, sewn in Japanese style with yellow thread (light wear, back cover lightly faded); cloth folding case.

$125,000

André Breton’s copy, first edition, deluxe issue. One of 24 lettered copies on blue paper signed by Hugnet and Duchamp, and with an original signed collage. A remarkable association copy of this important Surrealist work, inscribed by Hugnet to André Breton, Surrealism’s central figure: Á André Breton au monde merveilleux qu’il habite ou vivent ses poëmes et leurs ombres diamentifères très affectueusement Georges Hugnet 27 Juin 1936 [to André Breton to the marvelous world he inhabits, where dwell his poems and their shimmering shadows, very fondly Georges Hugnet, 27 June 1936]. Hugnet and Breton came to know each other in 1932 after the publication of Hugnet’s incisive essays on Dadism in cahiers d’art. Though their relationship was soured by an amorous rivalry, this inscription dates to a moment of “high enthusiasm” during the very successful 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition in London (11 June-4 July) organized by Hugnet, Breton, Eluard and Man Ray in collaboration with Roland Penrose and other British champions (Associations). Man Ray photographed the Duchamp readymade (‘Why Not Sneeze, Rrose Sélavy’) reproduced on the Duchamp-designed covers; this copy is lettered “F.” 101 Books, pp. 92-3; Associations, pp. 68-9.