Sochinenie I. F. Gorubunova [Collected Works of Ivan Fedorovich Gorbunov]. 5 Parts in 3 Volumes. St. Petersburg: 1904-1910. COMPLETE. Folio. Each volume c. 330 x 230 mm. Deluxe edition, bound in special brown half-leather binding in A. Shnel styele, the spine in 6 compartments with two black labels. Margins untrimmed. Top edges Gilt. The present lot number 211 (out of 500), numbered on the back of the title page of Volume I. Profusely illustrated with etchings and reproductions from paintings by artists such as Repin, and etched portrait of Gorbunov signed in the plate by N. Panov. Finding complete versions of this book, which include part 5, is exceedingly difficuly. VERY RARE.
PROVENANCE:
A.S. Molchanov, each volume bearing his bookplate Iz Knig A.S. Molchanova (see ref. Kilgour Collection of Russian Literature Harvard University, 1959, Catalog, Bookplate section, entry #1349 "S". A.S. Molchanov was a very well known antiquarian book dealer, who worked in the beginning of the 20th Century in St. Petersburg.
LITERATURE:
V. Lidin, Druzia - moi knigi. Zametki knigolyuba, Moscow: Gosizdat, 1962, p. 139-140; N. Smirnov-Sokolsky, Moya Biblioteka, Tom II, Moscow: Izdatelstvo Kniga, 1969, #2476 (includes only parts I-IV, part 5 was missing). Ivan Fedorovich Gorbunov (1831-1895) was a famous Russian writer and actor. Born into a family of peasants, Gorbunov became an actor at the Maliy Theatre in Moscow in 1854, and in 1855 at the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. He was noted for being a masterful story-teller, and his works are known for their masterful and humorous dialogue. Regarding this particular deluxe printing, Vladimir Linin, in his tome Books - My Friends: Notes from a Book-Lover, wrote, "A more luxurious edition of collected works, probably does not exist in the history of our book-printing."