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BENOIS RUSSIAN ART TOYS POSTCARDS BALLET RUSSE

BENOIS, Alexandre [Aleksanr Nikolaevich Benua] (1870-1960). Igrushki [Toys].

A collection of 10 postcards of Russian folk toys, issued to benefit the St. Evgenya Red Cross Society and lithographed in color by N. Kadushin, St. Petersburg, 1905. Each 140 x 95 mm. Condition: unused postcards with minor wear and soiling. Among his many other interests, Benois was a passionate collector of hand-made folk toys. He began buying them in the 1890s and soon became one of the leading experts in the field. Bakst studied Benois toys when he was working on his costume designs for the 1903 ballet Feya kukol [The Doll Fairy]. Benois encouraged Georgii Narbut to collect them too; and Benois' collection inspired Narbut's two picture books called Igrushki (1910). The first volume was appropriately dedicated to Benois. (10).(10)