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8vo. (190 x 138 mm). pp. 275, (i). Half-title, printed title with publisher's vignette and copyright verso and Sserafimowitsch's text, final leaves with advertisements. Original publisher's paper-covered boards, titles to front cover and spine in blue, front cover with monochrome drawing by Hans Bellmer showing a train of refugees with his signature 'BELL / MER" at lower right, some spotting to board edges A very scarce example of Hans Bellmer's pre-Surrealist commercial artistic work. Long before Hans Bellmer fled to France in the 1930s and his association with Surrealism, the artist undertook training at Berlin's Technische Hochschule in engineering. Bellmer abandoned those studies in 1924 and began to associate with sympathetic artists and political figures such as John Heartfield, George Grosz and Otto Dix while working for Malik Verlag as a typographer and designing and illustrating book covers. Sserafimowitsch's 'Der Eiserne Strom' (The Iron Flood), a tale of the Red Army encircled by the Whites and breaking free, was one of a small group of books illustrated by Bellmer - he is credited erroneously as 'A. Bellmer' - that also includes, among others, Walter Serner's 'Die Tigerin' and 'Der Pfiff und die Ecke', Henri Barbusse's 'Enchainements' and Walter von Hollander's 'Gegen Morgan'. The front cover of 'Der Eiserne Strom' shows Bellmer's drawing of a long train of laden refugees with wagons and children emerging through a narrow defile. The foremost character depicted appears to look back over his shoulder with some anxiety to a mêlée of shadowy figures, horses and sabres or bayonets. Bellmer's signature, written 'BELL / MER' is neat capitals is already recognisable and matches that of his later work. [see Therese Lichtenstein's 'Behind Closed Doors: the Work of Hans Bellmer']. Seller Inventory # 47749
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