David Hicks Scrapbooks
HISTORIC. DAVID HICKS SCRAPBOOKS . THESE BOOKS ARE OF ACTUAL NATIONAL CULTURAL IMPORTANCE! AND MOST IMPORTANTLY THEY ARE PUBLISHED BY IDEA AND AVAILABLE AS OF NOW. THAT BEING THE SAME NOW IN WHICH YOU ARE RUBBING YOUR EYES AND THINKING NO WAY! WELL... YES!
Did somebody say design classic? Did you just gasp? It is MEGA, right? Would you just look at that. Wow. Four volumes of David Hicks' personal scrapbooks edited by Ashley Hicks and published by IDEA. Covering the years 1950 through to 1998, these are unseen, unpublished, uneverythinged!
There are 640 pages. Each double page is a reproduction of a double page from 25 volumes of scrapbooks made by Hicks and retained by the family in a fireproofed room next to the loo at the Oxfordshire house of Ashley's mother, Lady Pamela. These carpet designs above are already worth the price of the books of course. Legend.
This red trim and mirrored bathroom is, was and will always be one of the wonders of the world of interiors. Hicks' own work is the primary subject of these scrapbooks. They provide abundant reference to his commercial and personal decoration and design projects. There are also a great many more curious commissions - society weddings / restaurant menu designs and so on - that are undocumented in any published Hicks books.
Visual data. The books are full of personal ephemera. On Living - With Taste was the title of Hicks' 1968 book and these scrapbooks follow that maxim. They detail the pervasive reach of the David Hicks branding project. It is a life of design.
Hicks is relatively restrained in his annotations. We particularly like his single word denouncement of this article cut and pasted from Women's Own . There is also some adroit Tippexing out of an ex-business partner. These and other idiosyncrasies displayed by his father are discussed by Ashley in this excellent AnOther feature about the books. Ashley's foreword to the book also happens to be a piece of perfect prose. You can read that here.
1969. Sombrero, black satin shirt and Gucci loafers. We have been telling the world how impossibly cool David Hicks was for years and years. Now this one photo puts that beyond all doubt!
Male pattern boldness! There is first class and upper class and, for the work of David Hicks, there is world class. You can see more of the books on this link .
The box set of four volumes is published in an edition of just 250. The price is £195.
Copies will be available at IDEA at Dover Street Market London from Tuesday 4th October for Frieze Week.
Right now DSM may be the only physical store that will carry them. There are just too few. You can buy now online on the link below. The first fifty copies have just been released for sale.
Be quick.
Him himself.