(Hockney, David) illus. FOURTEEN POEMS BY C.P. CAVAFY. S.47-59. Editions Electo, London, 1966. Folio (19 x 13 /14 inches, 484 x 385 mm.), cloth, slipcase, text and thirteen etchings. One of 250 copies from "Edition A," signed and numbered 48/500 on the Justification page (Edition A, numbered 1-250/500; Edition B, numbered 251-500/500. Edition A differs from Edition B in that it includes an extra plate, laid in and signed, titled and numbered by Hockney (this being numbered 48/250). Fine, with very light wear and fading to the slipcase. The loose plate has often been removed from the book at sold separately, and many copies from Editions A and B have been broken and the plates sold separately, so that despite the relatively large size of the publication, complete copies are now scarce. The total edition comprises "Edition A," 250 copies, numbered 1-250 plus 50 Artist's Proofs, all signed, with a signed etching laid into each of the 250 copies, but not into the Artist's Proofs, "Edition B," 250 copies, like Edition A, but without the laid-in etching, numbered 251-500, "Edition C," 50 sets of the etchings loose in portfolio numbered 1-50 of 75, each etching signed, "Edition D," 25 sets, plus 15 Artist's Proofs, like Edition C, but with the text included, numbered 51 to 75 of 75, "Edition E," 25 sets, plus 5 artist's proofs, comprising text, 12 unsigned etchings, and one signed etching, loose in portfolio, numbered I to XXV. Each etching in each edition is stamped on its reverse with the edition of which it is a part. The total size of the edition, including the Artist's Proofs, is, therefore, 670. David Hockney first discovered the Greek poet C.P.Cavafy while a student at the Royal Colege of Art in the early nineteen sixties. In 1961 he produced two etchings (Kaisarion with all his Beauty; Mirror, Mirror on the Wall) and a painting (A Grand Procession of Dignitaries in the Semi-Egyptian Style ) inspired by Cavafy's poems. So when Paul Cornwall-Jones of Editions Alecto asked him to make a series of etchings relating to Cavafy in 1966 he agreed without hesitation. The poems Hockney chose all related to Alexandria in Egypt with its barely concealed flavour of homosexual love, but Alexandria had become too spoilt since the poems were written in the nineteen twenties and so he travelled to Beirut for two weeks in order to make careful pen and ink drawings of the daily
