The Cecil Beaton List

We like the sound of the Cecil Beaton catalogue Beaux Books are launching at Firsts London this year and have talked to Clare Trimming about it.

 

Please tell us where the collection is coming from, is it a private collection or have you collected it over the years? Is it being sold as a whole or individually?

The collection has been built up over a number of years. We made it our mission to locate first editions of every book written by Cecil Beaton. Along the way, we've also found several books with his dust jacket designs and illustrations, as well as photographs, a drawing and other ephemera. The items are being offered individually.

 

Cecil Beaton is such a British icon who is possibly most famous for photographing other British icons. The collection includes all his photo books, including 'Time Exposure' which established him as one of the leading British photographers of the early 20th century. What other photo books do you feel deserve special attention?

In terms of photo books, I would argue that India is one his finest. The book was published in 1945 in Bombay, a year after Beaton’s return from his war-time Far East assignment for the Ministry of Information. It includes one hundred large, full-page, black-and-white photographic plates. The war-time paper rationing that affected British publishers did not seem to have impacted the Indian publisher. The images are printed to a generous size on thick paper. The photos have a rich tonality.

I also love The Book of Beauty. It is Beaton's first book (published in 1930) and the photographs perfectly capture the glamour and  beauty of the Bright Young People. It emphasises the wit, intelligence and spirit of the years between the two world wars. Today it is one of Beaton's most sought-after books and its value continues to rise.

 

Beaton was sent abroad as a war photographer during the second world war as well, are those books particularly rare?

The India book is scarce in the dust jacket. The books published by Batsford in the UK (Near East, Far East, An Indian Album, Chinese Album) appear to have been printed in quite large quantities. However, because of the war-time paper quality, the jackets and pages are often in poor condition. Finding a near fine copy can be hard. Beaton also published three books in 1941 and 1942 on subjects closer to home - London and the Blitz, and the RAF. These are much less well known than the India and China books but are no less interesting.

 

His collected work is an exceptional record of 20th century art and culture, please tell us more about his Scrapbook?

The Scrapbook is Beaton's second book. It's an accumulation of his work up until 1937 and contains a series of articles on subjects including travel, fashion, Hollywood, British customs and the theatre, accompanied by his photographs and sketches. The novel scrapbook style layout, striking wraparound dust jacket, the boards and endpapers covered with a floral Sanderson wallpaper and the different paper stock make this a stunning book to hold. The publishers, Batsford, arranged an exhibition to celebrate the publication of the book and decorated their shop in the same wallpaper as the book, with Beaton's sketches and photos pinned to the wall, all enhanced with artificial flowers.

 

When Beaton died in 1980, he left 145 volumes of diaries, in what format are they included in this collection?

Beginning in his youth, Beaton recorded every significant (and often insignificant) event, meeting and journey in his diary. It was a meticulous habit he kept up throughout his life. He mined the diaries for material for his books. Between 1961 and 1978 he extracted key passages and published them as a six volume set - Cecil Beaton's Diaries. He ensured that the six volumes create a coherent and attractive set. Each volume carries a uniform design but with changes to the colour of the boards, jacket and tinted top-edge - pink, blue, lilac, red, orange and yellow. The jackets look striking lined up on a shelf and complete sets are prized by collectors.

 

The collection includes all the 34 books he wrote. We love the spoof memoirs, which book struck you as particularly noteworthy or surprised you most?

The spoof memoirs of faded European aristocrats (My Royal Past and Quail in Aspic) are amusing and very different from his other works. He enlisted friends to cross-dress and photographed them as the principal characters of the books. Tony Gandarillas gamely dressed up as the Baroness Von Bülop and Elsa Maxwell played the part of Count Charles Korsetz.

The war-time books reveal a different aspect of Beaton's creativity and character. Up until 1939 he was principally known for his society portraits. His photographs and writings as an official War Photographer reveal a more serious side to his character. He took the responsibility of recording the heroic endeavours of the young pilots and soldiers seriously and this is borne out in the thoughtful and empathetic photos and text of the war books.

 

We often forget that he did theatre design and film set design, are there any examples in the collection you would like to point out?

Yes, he won three Academy Awards for his work on Gigi and My Fair Lady. Beaton wrote a book dedicated to his experience of designing the sets and costumes for My Fair Lady. We have a copy of this. He also contributed to The Masque. A Theatre Notebook, offering an appreciation of the work of his dear friend Rex Whistler. There are a couple of cover designs for theatre programmes in the collection, as well as an early drawing (completed when he was 20) of the actors Jeanne de Casalis and Tom Douglas in Fata Morgana, a play staged at the Criterion Theatre, London in 1924.

 

With this year's focus on art of the book at Firsts, we should also talk about his dust jacket designs, please share some of your favourites in this collection.

Beaton was so innovative with his dust jackets. The wrap-around jackets for Cecil Beaton's Scrapbook and Cecil Beaton's New York are particularly fabulous. He approached his books both as a writer and an artist, and placed as much importance on the finished design as the final text. His books' bindings are bound with bright cloth, top edges are tinted, and the dust jackets are always inventive. He also designed jackets for other authors, including Noel Coward, Nancy Mitford, Gertrude Stein and the Sitwell siblings. We have a copy of his first dust jacket - The President's Hat - and his second - All at Sea. A Social Tragedy in Three Acts for First-Class Passengers Only. Beaton knew how his books would look in a stylish home, artfully placed on a side table or ottoman. They still look as fresh and stylish today.

 

Beaux Books will be launch The CECIL BEATON List at First's. London's Rare Book Fair (16th-19th May 2024), featuring first edition copies of all the books authored by Cecil Beaton during his lifetime, plus books with original jackets illustrated by Beaton, posters and ephemera. Subscribe to the Beaux Books mailing list for updates on their catalogue.

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