Extraordinary 1920s Photo Book

We have an extraordinary album coming up for sale in Weird & Wonderful which will start at noon on July 17th.

This album is filled with original photographs, original set design drawings, and hand written press releases and notes for the theater show that changed the European avant-garde scene, La Revue Negre. This was a show starring some of the most talented Black performers from Harlem including Josephine Baker (French, 1906-1975), a 20's cultural icon turned French Resistance agent and civil rights activist. There are over 20 original photographs in the album, many of which were used as press releases and subsequently became iconic. Two of the many photographs of Josephine Baker have "Man Ray" written underneath. We know that Josephine Baker once modeled for Man Ray (American, 1890-1976) they may be wrongfully attributed, since an identical photograph in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection is attributed to the photographer, Adolf de Meyer (French, 1868-1946). What is interesting about the Baker photo attributed to de Meyer is that there is a sequential shot where she has changed positions; we were not able to find this other shot online. This cultural book documents the theater troupe as they go from Paris, Brussels, Berlin in the mid 20s. This is an unbelievable cultural artifact. The Weird & Wonderful auction starts at noon on July 17th. Preview for the auction is July 10-16, from 10am- 5pm.