FROM STALIN'S LIBRARY - WITH HIS OWNERSHIP SIGNATURE

[STALIN, JOSEF]. Komitet po delam Iskusstv pri Sovete Ministrov SSSR Gosudarestvennaya Tretyakovskaya Gallereya

Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin v izobrazitelnom iskusstve. Katalog vystavki 1949. Zhivopis', Grafika, Skulptura. [Russian - i.e. Josef Vissarionovich Stalin in the Fine Arts. Exhibition Catalogue. Painting, Graphics, Sculpture]. (Issued by the Committee on Arts under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, State Tretyakov Gallery).

Moskva [Moscow], 1949.

Small 4to (21x17 cm). Original printed wrappers - front wrapper with text in red and blue inside a double gilt frame and with the portrait of Stalin in relief. With Stalin's ownership signature on the title-page, in his characteristic blue crayon, and with the inventory stamp from Stalin's library to title-page and p. 17. Handwritten correction in blue ink to the text of the second-last plate. 

Pp. (1 - with tipped-in frontispiece-portrait of Stalin)-37, (5) pp + 13 photographic plates + colophon-leaf. Light overall wear.    


Stalin's copy, from his library and with his ownership-signature, of this 1949-catalogue compiled by the from the State Tretyakov Gallery of various portrayls of Stalin. 

"A dedicated reader and self-improver, Stalin's accumulation of books was a lifelong passion. In the mid-1920s he acquired an identity for his library in the form of an ex-libris stamp - Biblioteka I. V. Stalina - the Library of J. V. Stalin." (Roberts p. (1) ). 

Following his death in 1953, there were plans to turn his dacha, where his library was kept, into a museum. But the idea of a SAtalin Museum was shelved following Khruschev's denunciation of him and his personality cult in 1956, and the library was dispersed. 

Order-nr.: 62862

DKK 26.000,00