An African Folktale. Signed.
Guildford, England: Circle Press, 1979. Folio. 38 x 29 cm. 15 x 11.5 inches. One of 50 signed and numbered copies. Original cloth portfolio. Adaptation of an Efik Ibibio folktale illustrated with 18 blind-embossed intaglio designs printed from carved linoleum with some silk screen. Text printed letter-press in 30 pt Baskerville. 200 copies, 45 proofs – ten unbound 4 pp sections – 38 x 29 cm on Somerset mould-made paper in canvas-coloured solander box with a blocked crab motif.
Willow Legge is a British artist best known as a portrait sculptor. She studied sculpture at Chelsea School of Art in the early 1950s. From 1987 to 2000 she worked at Madame Tussauds, London, making portraits of celebrities. So how did this portrait sculptor come to create an artist’s book? Her venture into the realm of artists’ books arose from her marriage to and collaboration with fellow artist Ron King, who established Circle Press in 1967, an artistic enterprise focusing on fine art books that continues today. In addition to An African Folktale Legge made three other artists’ books at Circle Press: The Flea (1977), The Gnat and the Lion (1980), and Delicious Babies (1995).
Bibliography:
Courtney, Cathy. The Looking Book: A Pocket History of Circle Press 1967-96. London: Circle Press, 1996.
Dayrell, Elphinstone. Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria, West Africa. London: Longman, Green, 1910; reprinted New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969, folktale 16, pages 64-65.
Radin, Paul, editor. African Folktales and Sculpture. New York: Bollingen Foundation; distributed by Pantheon Books, 1952, reprinted 1964, folktale 5, page 41. Item #16-3536
Price: $2,500.00