“Don’t Tell Alfred” 1960 MITFORD, Nancy (EX-LIBRIS: ELSA SCHIAPARELLI) The Cary Collection

MITFORD, Nancy

[248] pp.

Hamish Hamilton

1960

7.55″ x 5.25″

Ex-libris Elsa Schiaparelli (SIGNED)

Elsa Schiaparelli (10 September 1890 – 13 November 1973) was an Italian fashion designer. Along with Coco Chanel, her greatest rival, she is regarded as one of the most prominent figures in fashion between the two World Wars. Starting with knitwear, Schiaparelli’s designs were heavily influenced by Surrealists like her collaborators Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau. Her clients included the heiress Daisy Fellowes and actress Mae West. Schiaparelli did not adapt to the changes in fashion following World War II and her couture house, Maison Schiaparelli closed in 1954. The house was subsequently revived in 2014.

Jacket design by Cecil Beaton

A first edition of Don’t Tell Alfred, the final book in Nancy Mitford’s trilogy of novels narrated by Fanny Wincham (nee Logan). The story is based twenty years after The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate. Fanny finds herself in Paris after her husband Alfred is appointed the British Ambassador. Uncle Matthew, the Bolter and Hecktor Dexter return and are joined by a new cast of Parisian characters and Fanny’s children, the four of whom place the plot firmly in the 1950s – ‘Basil, a teddy boy who runs a tourist agency, is soon followed by his bearded brother David, a Zen Buddhist with a speechless wife and an adopted Chinese baby. Meanwhile the two youngest brothers run away from Eton and take jobs as publicity agents to Yanky Fonzy, the disc star.’ Cecil Beaton provided the dust jacket, depicting teddy boy Basil in an impressive enfilade.