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Books, Autographs & Prints / Part II

Wednesday 31 March 2021, 03:00 PM • Rome

431

Munari, Bruno

(Milano 1907 - 1998)

Munari's Machines, 1942

Artist's Resale Right

Estimate

€ 250 - 350

Sold

€ 486

The price includes buyer's premium

Information

Turin, Einaudi, S.A.T.E.T. Società Anonima Tipografico Editrice Torinese, 1942. Photographic portrait of the author in black and white, 15 full page illustrations, slightly yellowed papers, editorial binding in red hardcover with illustrations on the front plate, back in black canvas, slight abrasions at the edges and at the plates, some graffiti, small tear in the cap.

Specialist Notes

FIRST EDITION. The work, highly original both in typography and in content, deals with 13 unique inventions, each described in "technical" details and accompanied by an illustration. Among the strangest devices, the "Lizard engine for tired turtles", the "Rain device to make the sob musical" and the "Handkerchief waving at the departure of trains". Munari's irreverent imagination did not spare even his publisher. Here is what he wrote, in a letter of 1942, to Einaudi: "If you intend to 'launch' the book, here are some suggestions in tune with the 'product'; example: to put an object of my machines (or an animal) in the shop window of the bookseller. with a tag that says: this snail and the snail's aunt Maria who is part of the machines for cooking eggs. Or put a chimney pot (of the terracotta ones) with the inscription: inside this fireplace lived the Catari turtle who, given the times, and went to get motorized ". Maffei 2002, p. 56.