Close by Macpherson Bryher (2 results)

Quarter cloth, paper boards. Condition: Good+. FIRST EDITIONS, seven volumes: III:1-6, IV:1-6; V:1-6, VI:1-6, VII:1-6, VIII:1-4 & IX:1-4. Five small 4tos (monthly format) and two large 4tos (quarterly format), with the original orange and black printed wrappers, with b/w film still to front wrapper (of first issue only) bound at the front and rear of each volume. Quarter orange cloth, spine lettered and decorated in gilt, cream marbled paper boards. Very well-handled: toned, warped and worn, insect-damaged and paint-flecked. Vol. III lacks cover still to front wrapper bound in; splits to joints of vol. IV; vol V. cracked rear hinge; spine cracked in vol. VI, but binding firm; vol IX: top corner of upper board badly damaged, echo of bump into top corners of text block. All vols: edges and endpapers toned, some foxing, occasional pencil notes, else, internally, clean and bright, mostly tight. Good+ to fair An unusual collection of seven (of ten) bound volumes of POOL's pioneering and pan-European film magazine, Close Up (1927-1933), likely in the original bindings, with adverts describing: "Reference books for future" with "orange cloth-back board volumes are priced at 10 shillings". Including both its monthly and quarterly formats. Amply illustrated with wonderful b/w stills (in part, to help circumvent British censorship of foreign films) and with original adverts, which helped fund the venture, alongside Bryher's familial wealth. Co-edited by Bryher, with Kenneth Macpherson at the helm, and featuring contributions from a wide spectrum of modernists and early film writers and practitioners, including H.D., Dorothy Richardson, Hanns Sachs, Harry A. Potamkin, Robert Herring, Clifford Howard, Marc Allagret, Jean Lenauer, S. M. Eisenstein, Geraldyn Dismond, Elmer Carter, Paul Rotha, Roger Burford, Yasushi Oguno, A. Kraszna-Krausz, Pearl Attasheva, and Erno Metzner.

numerous plates in each issue showing film stills etc., including the work of the POOL group, pp. 83, [1, ad]; 79; 80; 64; 96; 98, small 4to, bound in full vellum, the wrappers of first number bound in at rear, the backstrip lettered in black, the lettering slightly rubbed, light overall soiling, good. A good sample of this early and influential cinema periodical, calling itself 'the only magazine devoted to films as an art', and here hitting its stride. The contributors included those within the POOL group: the Editors, H.D. (inter alia, in praise of Noel Coward's 'Sirocco'), Robert Herring (in one instance criticising Hitchcock's early film, 'The Ring'), and Oswell Blakeston; from their wider circle come Dorothy Richardson, whose multiple contributions include her 'Continuous Performance' series and an article on 'Cinema in the Slums', Jean Prévost, Marc Allégret, et al. The attention of the periodical is broad, with a particular predilection for Russian and German cinema.