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Colleción Infantil. Historia del General San Martin. El Niño Dios. Geografia.Argentina. Alí Babá y los Cuarenta Ladrones. 4 volumes
193919964Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamerica 1939. First Editions. Outer cloth custom slipcase and chemise. Inner custom and homemade decorative decorated slipcase. Hardcover paper pastedown on boards cloth spines. Near Fine/Slipcases: Near Fine. Antonio Berni San Martin; Ballester Peña Niño; Horacio Butler Geografia; and Toño Salazar Ali Baba. A special set of Argentine children's titles from the 1930s with an unique decorative slipcase that is also an arresting specimen of Folk Art and we would regard more specifically as Latin American Rococo Folk Art as well. Folio. 36 by 27 cm. Outer slipcase: 38.5 by 28 cm. Unpaginated. All volumes have 14 leaves including free endpapers which have text inside -- in front the colophons in rear either the final text or with Geografia an Argentine map. San Martin and Niño Dios both 26 pp. Geografia has an extra page with an Argentine map inside the rear free endpaper. All four have deliciously colored illustrations on every page title pages included. Sometimes there are two illustrations on a page but there are many illustrations that are spread between the two facing pages in a variety of ways. The variety of ways in fact are part of what make the layouts so visually compelling in this series. The illustrations are stylistically varied from one volume to the next as to be expected with four different illustrators responsible. Whimsicality even a light-hearted spirited goofiness characterizes the illustrations of Ali Baba probably the volume most beloved by readers and the Geografia has the playfulness of many a fun map. The El Nino Dios is a sort of outlier surely because of its ponderous subject matter. Its artwork has the sharp and jagged angles of modernist stained glass such as one might find in a Bauhaus-inspired church and it's the one volume in which the palette is also not bright and lively. The homemade slipcase to elaborate further uses doily paper with lace designs gold foil paper and paint broadly applied to frame its cut-out window on the front and create a decorative field evocative of Colonial era ornamentation from South America. The chemise has a Armorial book plate mounted this being from Francis Bayard Rives 1890-1969 a New York attorney and blueblood Social Register listee. Corners of the four volumes are generally lightly bumped. The San Martin volume and to a lesser extent Ali Baba have evidence of bumping on their upper corner leaves but even in San Martin this is a minor cavil. Ali Baba has a tiny spot of paper pastedown loss on its front cover. The paper can also be worn down along the edges of all the volumes. Ali Baba's leaves have a hint of gentle waviness. Otherwise all volumes are immaculate. The outer slipcase does show wear with some fraying of its threads along edges. Overall this is a beautifully preserved set and a handsome set by any standard. Editorial Sudamerica hardcover
