Russian Placards, Le Placard Russe, 1917-1922.

Lebedev, Vladimir Vasilyevich. Russian Placards, Le Placard Russe, 1917-1922. 1st. part, Petersburg office of the Russian Telegraph Agency ROSTA. Petersburg branch of the News of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee ("Isvestia VCIK"), Petersburg, 1923. Executed by "STRELETZ" (The Archer).

Small 4to (218 x 186mm.), 4 leaves and 23 coloured lithographs of posters produced by Lebedev, with accompanying tissue guard sheets carrying captions in English and French. Title-pages in English and French. Limited to 1700 copies.

Bound in maroon buckram covered boards with gilt lettering to front, with green end-papers. Front of original orange wrapper with lithograph illustration bound in – lacking the blank rear of the original wrapper. Housed in a custom-made maroon cloth covered clamshell box, with gilt title to the front and spine.

Buckram faded to spine and top board – a 3.5cm strip alongside the front hinge (see photo below). Small piece of tissue paper attached near to the upper hinge of the wrapper front. Wrapper a little dusty with light crease to the top corner. Light spots of foxing to the lithograph illustration on the wrapper. Light spots of foxing to the English title-page and varying degrees of very light to moderate foxing to the majority of tissue guard sheets.

All of the lithographs are in very good condition, with only a few small spots of very feint to light foxing to numbers 5, 7, 10, 15, 18, and 19. Very minor evidence of creasing to some page corners, probably due to page turning.

Lebedev, Vladimir Vasilyevich (1891 – 1967), part of the early 20th century Russian avant-garde, was a painter, political cartoonist, poster artist, and children's book designer. From 1920-1922, following the Russian revolution of which he was an immediate supporter, Lebedev created more than 500 posters ("placards"), for the Russian Telegraph Agency (ROSTA) and the Department for Agitation and Propaganda (Agitprop). His posters and those of other Russian artists were designed to communicate key political messages promoting solidarity with the revolution.

The posters were displayed in ROSTA "show windows" / "vitrines de propagande" which functioned as a form of mass communication. Collectively ROSTA Posters, also known as ROSTA Windows, were displayed in shop windows and other busy urban places in a context where widespread illiteracy necessitated visual images as a means of immediate communication.

Lebedev's posters, which were displayed in Petersburg, show stark simplified imagery in bold colours using geometric forms and shapes. For example, his poster "A workman sweeping the criminal elements out of the Republic (work control)" displays the large figure of a worker (identifiable by his hat) sweeping away the smaller "criminal element" figures at his feet.

This is a high value item and consequently the shipping cost will be higher than the average cost quoted on my Biblio listings, the additional cost will be added to the overall sale price. Potential purchasers can request details of the total shipping cost in advance of making a purchase.

A full list of the 23 lithographs and further photographs are available upon request.