Richard Yarde

Signed first edition copy of Richard Yarde's The Savoy Ballroom with 28 signed prints by Yarde.

• Richard Yarde (American).
• Text by Alexander Eliot.
• Introduction by M. S. Campbell.
• Designed by Barry Moser.
• [Massachusetts]: Savoy Associates/(The Hampshire Typothetae), 1986.
• Illustrated with 14 color plates, each plate is printed on a double sheet, each signed in pencil; with an extra suite of 14 color plates, with each plate signed.
• Limited to 400 numbered copies (this copy is not numbered, as usual). 
• Unsewn folio sheets printed in red and black type, pp. [viii], 104 (consisting of loose bifolium sheets, laid into black wrappers, embossed: "Savoy").
• Presented in publisher's quarter-leather clamshell box, with art deco design on spine.

The Hampshire Typothetae, which produced this publication, ceased operation in 1986, and the entire edition appears never to have been completed. African-American artist Richard Yarde (1939-2011) was born in Boston, earned an MFA at Boston University, where he later taught, and he eventually became professor of art at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst). He is considered one of the most accomplished American watercolorists of his generation. His work is found in numerous public collections, including MoMA, Studio Museum of Harlem, Smithsonian Institution, Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), etc. When discussing his watercolor studies of musicians and dancers at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, Yarde stated: "The Savoy became a source of creativity, joy and strength to me which I want to share and honor." Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, in 1982, presented a traveling exhibition "Savoy: An Installation by Richard Yarde", also shown in San Diego, Baltimore and The Studio Museum, Harlem.