Veselaia Azbuka [The Merry Alphabet].

One of the finest soviet alphabet books. A scarce and humorous ABC from one of the most celebrated members of the Mir Iskusstva [World of Art] group. Dobuzhinsky began working on his Veselaia Azbuka in the summer of 1924, when he was living in Lithuania having permanently left the Soviet Union. The letters of the alphabet take on amusing characters and are surrounded by a decorative border of said letter in different typographical forms. A charming addition at the end of the work is a vignette of three letters which were axed in the orthographical reform of the revolution, placed in a glass cloche and dated 1917.

WorldCat lists copies two copies in institutions, Princeton and the University of Michigan.

First edition; 4to (26 x 19.5 cm); 32pp. including title page, illustrations in colour throughout after Dobuzhsinky; original printed wrappers, right margin trimmed, some scattered staining, foot of each page slightly soiled, skilful reinforcement to spine otherwise a very good copy.

Rats Collection 112.