Ulysses, one of 100, signed - photo 1
Ulysses, one of 100, signed - photo 2
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Ulysses, one of 100, signed

Lot 213
28.01.2025 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Sold
$ 138 600
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
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ID 1360930
Lot 213 | Ulysses, one of 100, signed
Estimate value
$ 100 000 – 150 000
JOYCE, James (1882-1941). Ulysses. Paris: Shakespeare and Company, 1922.

The Annette Campbell-White copy of Joyce's masterpiece. One of 100 copies on Dutch handmade paper (this is copy #75), signed by the author, finely bound by Bayntun-Rivière. The impact of Joyce's Ulysses was revolutionary in its own time and the book continues to stand as one of the most significant English-language novels of the last century. The complexities of its formal structure, its linguistic inventiveness, and its imaginative cohesion of historical sources have made it the most diligently studied work of modern literature in English.

The publication of Ulysses was a trying experience for its author, and no less so than the difficulties endured while writing it. Early manuscripts of the novel show Joyce beginning to move beyond the more formally traditional work represented in his Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and towards his mature style. Introduced to Harriet Shaw Weaver by Ezra Pound, Joyce first hoped to publish the novel serially in her journal the Egoist, but legal problems in England and America (resulting from the novel's presumed obscene content) halted this plan. Sylvia Beach of the Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris intervened at this seemingly desperate stage and Ulysses, published under her imprint, was revived for publication.

Early provenance for this copy was unknown at the time of the census and unrecorded in previous auction descriptions. An almost completely faded inscription from the year of publication, however, is evident on one of the original blank leaves at the end of the book: "To my best friend Alfred Kohnstamm. I cannot say anything about this book because I haven't had time to read it. Competent critics have called it the greatest contribution to the fiction of the 20th Century and equally competent critics have called it tosh. I leave it to you. With all good wishes, Blake Ozias, London, December 1922." Alfred Kohnstamm (1873-1944) was a successful Jewish leather merchant in London known for his patronage of the arts, including support for American-British sculptor Jacob Epstein. His daughter Phyllis (1907-1976; known professionally as Phyllis Konstam) was an English actress whose work included four films directed by Alfred Hitchcock between 1928-1931. Blake Ozias (1881-1967) was an American businessman and author, and the husband of Gordon Conway (1894-1956), the American fashion illustrator and costume designer who, among many other things, designed for British films of the 1920s-30s. Ozias and Conway moved to Europe after they married in 1920 before divorcing in France in 1927. There is no mention of Ozias among Sylvia Beach's records of Ulysses subscribers; he likely bought this copy from a dealer or bookshop in France or England.

The first printing consisted of 1,000 copies, divided into three various limitations. The first 100 copies were printed on fine handmade paper, numbered 1-100, and signed by Joyce, as here. Copies 101-250 were also printed on handmade paper, though of a lesser grade than the first 100, and were not signed by Joyce. The final 750 copies were numbered 251-1000, printed on the least expensive stock of paper, and like the previous limitation, were not signed by Joyce. Connolly, The Modern Movement 42; Slocum & Cahoon A17.

Quarto (236 x 181mm). Half-title, leaves uncut. Art Deco-style vellum binding by Bayntun-Rivière Bath, with geometric design of hunter green and midnight blue morocco inlays and gilt tooling, marine blue silk endpapers, with original blue paper wrappers and endleaves bound in (vellum spine very slightly toned, a little wear to wrappers). Custom slipcase. Provenance: Blake Harrison Ozias, businessman and writer, 1881-1967 (faded gift inscription dated December 1922 on rear endpaper to:) – Alfred Jacob Kohnstamm, leather merchant and Jewish arts patron, 1873-1944 – Sotheby’s, 19 July 1990, lot 169 – Sotheby’s, 11 December 1997, lot 333 – Sotheby's, 12 December 2002, lot 370 – Annette Campbell-White (her sale, Sotheby's, 7 June 2007, lot 86).
Artist:James Joyce (1882 - 1941)
Place of origin:France
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