WORLD OF ART GROUP -- Zhar Ptitsa. Ezhemesiachnyi literaturnyi khudozhestvennyi zhurnal. N. 1-14. [Firebird. A Monthly Literary Artistic Journal. Nos 1-14. All published.] Paris and Berlin: Russian Art, 1921-1926.

14 parts in 13 vols, 4º (320 x 245mm). Illustrated throughout, including some colour plates mounted on leaves with printed captions. (One leaf in issue 6 with a short repaired tear, occasional light spotting.) Original illustrated wrappers (spines expertly repaired, some light soiling and light wear); together in a custom-made case. Provenance: Mefodii Georgevich Lukianov (1892-1932; presentation inscription in issue 3, dated Berlin 20 December 1921, to:) -- Ekaterina Leopol'dovna (sister of Henrietta Hirshman).

FIRST EDITIONS. A COMPLETE SET IN THE ORIGINAL PARTS. The third issue, in which his portrait by Somov appears, inscribed by Mefodii Lukianov. Any issue of Zhar Ptitsa with notable provenance is very uncommon. Lukianov was a very close friend of the artist Konstantin Somov. Their friendship began in 1910 and continued some twenty-two years until Lukianov's death from tuberculosis. In a letter to his sister following the funeral, Somov wrote: 'I must be grateful for this good fortune, that I had such a great and devoted friend' (28 April 1932). Zhar Ptitsa is 'perhaps the most famous of post-revolutionary art journals, whose contributors threw new light on the development of Russian art at the beginning of the twentieth century' (Fekula). 'Even separate issues of the magazine, let alone complete sets of its issues, are a great bibliographic rarity' (Vengerov). An essential work of reference, it includes contributions from Somov, Benois, Grigor'ev, Bakst, Goncharova, Bilibin, Lukomskii, Diaghilev, Shukaev, Makovskii, and all the members of Mir Iskusstva. Fekula 5742; Vengerov, Staraia Russkaia Kniga, 105.

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