Kolbasy i miasokopchenosti

1938. KONNIKOV, Abram. Kolbasy i miasokopchenosti. 272 pp., illustrated with 124 chromolithographic images of sausages and other cured meats. Oblong folio, 295 x 420 mm., bound in publisher's dark blue boards. Moscow: Pishchepromizdat, 1938. While it does not have the avant-garde sensibility of Telingater's ball-bearing catalogue or Piet Zwart's wire catalogue, this monumental ode to the sausage can certainly lay claim to being one of the outstanding trade catalogues of the twentieth century, with a definite surreal quality, achieved by the disparity between the massiveness of the book and its mundane subject matter. Unlike many Soviet books of the period, no attempt was made to achieve an interesting work through design. The book contains 124 lithographs by V. Loginov depicting such delicacies as glazed sausages, Russian frankfurters and high-grade sujuk sausages. With new endpapers, some soiling, but overall, a fine copy of this rare book. OCLC lists only University of Chicago worldwide. (Inventory #: 172505)