Dinner at Aunt Connie's House - First Edition - Signed - Faith Ringgold - Bauman Rare Books

Dinner at Aunt Connie's House

Faith RINGGOLD

Item#: 117747 We're sorry, this item has been sold

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"ART CAN BE MORE THAN A PICTURE ON THE WALL… IT CAN BE MAGICAL!"

RINGGOLD, Faith. Dinner at Aunt Connie's House. New York: Hyperion, 1993. Large square quarto, original pictorial laminated paper boards, original dust jacket.

First edition of the award-winning artist's third book for children, wonderfully inscribed in silver ink by her in the year of publication, "To H— anyone can fly S— ! Faith Ringgold Sept. 19, 1993," featuring over 20 full-page color illustrations by her.

Ringgold's Dinner at Aunt Connie's House tells the story of "Melody, an African-American girl in search of a role model. The child is entranced by stories that her aunt, a painter, weaves at the dinner table. One day Aunt Connie's tales take on a life of their own, when portraits she has done of women prominent in black history (Rosa Parks, Dorothy Dandridge, Bessie Smith, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth and Marian Anderson among them) come to life and take turns telling Melody and her cousin about their struggles" (Chicago Tribune). "The heart of the book—the pages in which the women tell their stories—is at once a magical and a ringing affirmation of their achievements" (Publishers Weekly). Ringold's book is based on her 1986 story quilt, The Dinner Quilt, which is also pictured herein. The book's vibrant focus on 12 African American women expresses Ringgold's "belief that art can be more than a picture on a wall—it can envision our history… what's more, it can be magical!"

Only tiny bit of edge-wear to colorful dust jacket. A fine inscribed copy.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
Armorial Used to describe a binding bearing the coat of arms of the original owner, or with bookplates incorporating the owner’s arms.
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Boards Hard front and rear covers of a bound book which are covered in cloth, leather or paper. “Original boards” refers to cardboard-like front and back boards, from about 1700 to 1840, used as temporary protection for books before their purchasers would have them bound. Of particular value to collectors as evidence of a very early form of the book.
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Chromolithograph Lithograph printed in colors, typically three or more.
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Duodecimo (12MO) Smaller than an octavo, typically less than six inches tall; smaller formats, such as 24mo and 32mo, are uncommon.
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Engraving Illustration produced by carving lines into a metal plate. This is an intaglio process, in which ink is poured over the plate, then wiped from the surface, leaving ink only in the recesses made by the engraver’s tools. The image is then transferred by pressing thick dampened paper against the metal plate with great force—requiring engravings to be printed on a separate stock and separate press from any text.
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Lithograph Illustration produced by transferring an image drawn on a carefully prepared stone to paper. The process allowed illustrations to more closely resemble the original drawings, paintings or sketches, as it gave the lithographer a freedom of line impossible to achieve in earlier intaglio and relief processes. It does not require the same sort of pressure as an engraving to transfer the image, but still has to be printed on separate stock from the text
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