Lot 3097: KUZMIN, MIKHAIL ALEKSEEVICH. 1872-1936

TUROVA, EKATERINA, illustrator. Dvum. [For Two]. Petrograd: Segodnya, 1919.
Small 8vo (205 x 153 mm). 8 pp. Original wrappers with hand-colored linocut by Ekaterina Turova and printer's device designed by Vera Ermolaeva. Back wrapper detached but present, light soiling and slightly tanned.

RARE HAND-COLORED COPY of Kuzmin's only children's book, no 46 of 125 hand-colored copies, out of a total edition of 1,000. Contains a device in watercolor by Turova not in the regular edition. One of the two poems was dedicated to Lili Brik ("L. Iu. B." or "love"), Vladimir Mayakovsky's mistress. "Segodnya" (Today) was the world's first avant-garde children's book publisher, formed by a brief artist's collective of the same name who met in Vera Ermolaeva's apartment until she was appointed rector of the art academy in Vitebsk. MoMA 258; Borovkov p 151.