Tavy Notton

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Tavy Notton

1cupidum
Lug 26, 2021, 11:09 am

Who was Tavy Notton? When I started collecting books illustrated by him about a decade ago, virtually no information about him was available on the internet, and no printed biography seems to exist. But at the same time, his anonymity has made the collecting and researching his works more interesting, and perhaps more affordable.

The first information about Tavy Notton that appeared online perhaps some five years ago is to be found on a webpage https://library.mcmaster.ca/archives/virtualmuseum/mod4-1.html. McMaster university had acquired a portfolio of drawings by Tavy Notton, dated between 1941 and 1944, depicting the Great Famine in Greece. McMaster writes that the engraver was a Greek-French artist, but that information is wrong, as you will see if you read on. When I saw a few of these drawings, I noted that some of them were reproduced as copper engravings in Gide's Les nouvelles nourritures in 1959.

Perhaps three or four years ago, in a Thai blog, I finally learned about Notton's ancestry. Tavy Notton was born in Thailand, the son of Camille Notton and his wife Mae. The only photo of Tavy Notton that I have ever seen appears here: https://grande-et-petites-histoires-de-la-thailande.over-blog.com/2018/01/a-249-... Tavy Notton in 1914, the year that he was born, together with his mother and sister.



Tavy Notton engraved what appears to be self-portraits in some of his books, usually as "remarques" in the portfolios of prints that accompany some of the "éditions de tête".









Recently, I have found out that Tavy Notton was married thrice: to Simone Delalande, Andrée Joly and Léla Pascali. Andrée wrote the text for the first three books with engravings by Notton and Léla Pascali illustrated books herself. Simone Delalande is mentioned at the site honesterotica.com, but I haven't been able to find the source of their information.

Tavy Notton lived 1914-1977 (or 1978).

If anyone with more information on Tavy Notton (I have written his name several times in the hope that this thread will be found easily by anyone searching for Tavy Notton) reads this and is not a member of LT, please drop me a line by email notton at telia com.

I will now post, in chronological order, photos of the Tavy Notton books that I have in my collection.

1938 Quelques Joyaux Chretiens de l'Attique













1940 Monasteres Attique et Beotie





















1943 Thessalie — Trikkala - Kalabaka -Kastraki





















1948 André Berry - Chantefable de Murielle et d'Alain



















1949 Charles Maurras - Mon jardin qui s'est souvenu…















1950 André Gide - Les nourritures terrestres























1951 Charles Maurras - Jarres de biot

















1951 Rabindranath Tagore - L'offrande lyrique













1951 Oscar Wilde - Ballade de la geole de Reading

























1952 Philippe Pétain - Maréchal de France























1952 En attendant Douaumont













1953 J.-H. Fabre - Vie et moeurs des insectes































1954 Maurice Maeterlinck - La vie des abeilles

































1955 Maurice Maeterlinck - L'intelligence des fleurs



































1955 Jules Renard - Histoires naturelles



















1957 Buffon - Les chants du printemps



















1959 André Gide - Les nouvelles nourritures













































1962 & 1966 Guillaume Apollinaire - Le bestiaire





























1968 Buffon - Les chants de la forêt















1977 Buffon - Les chants des solitudes


















2ultrarightist
Lug 26, 2021, 1:51 pm

Magnificent! Thank you for posting copious pics of his incredible illustrations.

3Lukas1990
Lug 26, 2021, 4:02 pm

Amazing illustrations! Thanks for sharing!

4wcarter
Lug 26, 2021, 5:09 pm

An extraordinary thread with some beautiful books.