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[COVER DESIGN] ცეცხლადძე, გრიგოლ. ოთხი მაუზერი. [i.e. The Four Mauzers. A poem]

Tsetskhladze, Grigol

Item #2658

Tbilisi: Kartuli Tsigni, 1931. 62, [2] p. 17,5 × 12 cm. 1 of 2000 copies. Original illustrated avant-garde wrapper by Irakli Gamrekeli. Past water-stains throughout the last few pages, the foxing of the wrapper. Otherwise good.

First edition. In Georgian. Extremely rare.
The important poem of the main representative of Dadaist ideas in Georgian literature, the founder of shortlived avant-garde movement ‘Synthetism’, the pioneer of Georgian vers libre and the editor-in-chief of the periodical მოქმედება [I.e. Action], Grigol Tsetskhladze (1894—1976). The book itself is a revolutionary poem set in the time of so-called Gurian Republic, that was the result
of the county-wide revolt in 1902 and existed until 1906 as semi-independent authority in the Western Georgia. During its existence, the Gurian Republic ignored Russian rule and established its own system of government, which consisted of assemblies of villagers meeting and discussing issues. A unique form of justice, where trial attendees voted on sentences, was introduced. Politically it was leaning to socialism, although the origins of the movement were more grassroots-based. Tsetskhladze was of Gurian descent was growing up at the time and soon became the student of the local Ozurgeti seminary (due to tsarist policies no universities were allowed on the Caucasus so seminary was the only way to get educated in Georgia at the time). The book is another example of important collaboration between Tsetskhladze and Irakliy Gamrekeli, the designer of this book. He was one of the most prominent conductors of the avant-garde and leftist ideas into the Georgian book design, the contributor to the famous H2SO4 magazine and the periodical of Georgian LEF (Memartskheneoba), as well as the influential stage designed for Kote Marjanishvili’s theatre experiments. This is the second time Tsetskhladze and Gamrekeli collaborated on a book, first being 1924 collection of poems ‘Poet’s Bark’.

Overall, an important survival of its time, one of the achievements of short-lived period of modernism in Georgian book design and in literature.

Worldcat locates one copy at Johns Hopkins University.

Price: $950.00