100 MARCEL DUCHAMP
Coffee Mill
.
Etching, 1947. 180x80 mm; 7
1
/
8
x3
1
/
8
inches, full margins. Second state (of 2), after cancellation.
A very good, evenly-printed impression.
Duchamp etched this print in 1947 for inclusion in the Gleizes/Metzinger book
Du Cubisme
(see lot 101), after the same-title painting he had made in 1911 for his sculptor brother
Raymond Duchamp-Villon. His brother was married in 1911 and asked his artist friends to
make him small paintings with which to decorate his kitchen.According to Duchamp’s later
recollection,“I made this old-fashioned coffee mill for him. It shows the different facets of
the coffee grinding operation and the handle on top is seen simultaneously in several
positions as it revolves.You can see the ground coffee in a heap under the cogwheels of
the central shaft, which turns in the directions of the arrow on top,” (d’Harnoncourt/
McShine,
Marcel Duchamp
, 1973, page 256).
[1,000/1,500]
