A Gold Book
WARHOL’S RARE STUNNING SELF-PUBLISHED EARLY WORK. PRESENTATION COPY TO PHOTOGRAPHER DUANE MICHALS.
INSCRIBED ON FRONT COVER: “To Duane / Happy Brithday [sic] / A.W.” WITH LETTER OF PROVENANCE FROM DUANE MICHALS.
“Warhol published A Gold Book [in 1957]. Printed on gold-coated paper with pink, lilac, and teal tissue laid between the pages, A Gold Book indulges the sensual in both its content and its materiality. It is dedicated to ‘Boys filles fruits and flowers shoes tc and ew,’ referencing both the broader gay subculture to which Warhol belonged, his close friend Ted Carey, and Warhol’s then lover Edward Wallowitch, whose photographs were the basis of several drawings in the book.” (Lucy Mulroney, Andy Warhol, Publisher).
A Gold Book was one of “Warhol’s promotional books – handmade and personalized – [that] often felt more like gifts. He sent A Gold Book at Christmas in 1957… He traced most of these drawings from photographs”. (Museum of Modern Art, Catalog).
Provenance: Presented by Warhol to celebrated photographer Duane Michals. With autograph letter of provenance from Michals reading: “To whom it may concern / This copy of the Gold Book was inscribed to me by Andy Warhol early in his career. We were both from McKeesport and had an instant affinity. / Duane Michals”. Michals – a significant influence on photography – was “the pioneer of still-image, multiframe sequences that introduced storytelling to modern photography.” (Philip Gefter, The New York Times).
Note: Because of the haphazard way the book was produced, there are inconsistencies among copies. This copy with nineteen photo-lithographed plates (plus the title page): thirteen on gold paper and six on white paper, with four of the six on white paper with highlights in watercolor. With colored tissue guards. Without the colophon presentation included in some copies. In cream cloth binding (as opposed to the more common gold binding).
New York: published by the artist, 1957. Folio (plates approx. 14 1/2 x 11 1/4 in). Sewn plates with gold wrappers additionally sewn through cream cloth binding. Housed in custom cloth box. Gold wrappers (and plates) with sewing intact but now separated from cloth binding. Some minor finger smudges to a few plates, some soiling to boards.
A BEAUTIFUL COPY WITH OUTSTANDING PROVENANCE.
Price: $36,000 .