BAKST, Léon (1866-1924, illustrator). The Designs of Léon Bakst for The Sleeping Princess, London, 1923, 4to, portrait of Bakst by Picasso, 54 coloured plates by Bakst, original vellum-backed boards. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. NUMBER 385 OF 1,000 COPIES.

BAKST, Léon (1866-1924, illustrator).  The Designs of Léon Bakst for The Sleeping Princess. A Ballet in Five Acts after Perrault. Music by Tchaikovsky. Preface by André Levinson. London: Benn Brothers Limited, 1923. Large 4to (389 x 285mm). Half title, coloured illustration by Léon Bakst laid down on the title and another at the head of the list of plates, full-page lithographed portrait of Bakst by Pablo Picasso, 54 mounted coloured plates by Bakst. Original vellum-backed blue buckram boards, spine lettered in gilt, top edges gilt, others uncut (lightly stained, corners rubbed and bumped, without the slipcase). Provenance: "M.K.S. from A.F.S." (pencil inscription on front free endpaper). FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. NUMBER 385 OF 1,000 COPIES. From André Levinson's Preface: "In less than six weeks - his time was necessarily restricted - Léon Bakst composed, or, rather, improvised the six scenes and the three hundred costumes (a whole world of pictorial fiction) which the ballet contains. A less bold, more timorous worker, seeking the exact historical document, nosing about in portfolios, compiling dossiers, would have succumbed to the difficulties. Bakst, above all else an imaginative artist, triumphed. Instead of building up an imitation, he created a dream of reality ... This effect is traceable to three things, a buoyant, grandiose organisation of space, an expert orchestration of colours and an inexhaustible wealth of decorative invention." The ballet is more commonly known as "The Sleeping Beauty."