BASKIN, Leonard.  MOKOMAKI.

Leeds: The Eremite Press, 1985. Folio. Gold-stamped vellum binding, separate portfolio, all in a clam-shell box. "Artist's Copy".

This is a unique copy of a major work by Baskin, representing the artist as a mature, revitalized artist.  The work itself, with etchings of shrunken and tattooed Maori heads by Leonard Baskin, accompanies three poems by Ted Hughes.  This is a unique copy of the work, with an additional portfolio of special material commissioned by The Bookpress Ltd.  First, there is a two-page, unpublished essay by Baskin on how he became interested in the subject as a twelve year old boy at the Brooklyn Museum.  It is written on large fourteen by eight inch blue art paper in Baskin's elegant calligraphic hand.  In addition there are four original water-color drawings, twelve touched proofs, all proofs on vellum, fourteen trial proofs (counter proofs and color trials), and seven pages of designs for typographical layouts.  The additional material is enclosed in portfolios, enclosed in a custom clam-shell box with a copy of the book itself.  This is an "Artist's Copy" of the work itself, nicely bound in the publisher's full vellum binding by Gray Parrot.  It has been signed by Leonard Baskin and dated January 1987, further indicating that additional material had been supplied by the artist.  The book itself was limited to a printing of fifty copies.

$15,750.00