London: Privately Published, 1933. First Edition.
Edition & Rarity:
First edition of this extraordinary and scarce privately printed work—limited to just 500 copies—documenting the psychedelic spirit art of Argentinian-born medium and automatist Ethel Le Rossignol (1873–1970).
Description:
Folio (370 x 310 mm). Title page printed in red and black. Illustrated with 35 full-page black and white spirit drawings and 7 spectacular tipped-in colour plates (each 320 x 320 mm) with circular illustrations heightened in gilt.
Original pale green buckram, lettered in gilt to spine and upper board. Cloth lightly sunned with faint foxing and a few small damp marks, but sound and attractive overall. Contents clean and crisp; plates remain vivid and beautifully preserved.
Provenance & Context:
Le Rossignol’s visionary "Goodly Company" series was created between 1920 and the early 1930s, comprising 44 spiritualist paintings executed under the claimed influence of the spirit "J.P.F.", a deceased friend. Le Rossignol maintained that she acted merely as a conduit for these kaleidoscopic transmissions of colour and form—her hand moved by supernatural guidance rather than artistic intent.
The resulting images depict a radiant astral world teeming with sylphs, demons, and ornate animal spirits—imagery that invites comparison to Hilma af Klint, Georgiana Houghton, and William Blake "at his mystical maddest" (Psychic News, 1958).
Privately published by Le Rossignol in 1933 to accompany a major exhibition at the London Spiritual Alliance (extended due to popularity), this book pairs explanatory text with her striking visual works, chronicling the spiritual journey of J.P.F. through the afterlife.
In addition to being an early and important document of visionary art and spiritualist culture, A Goodly Company is a beautifully produced object in its own right—lavishly printed, with colours that remain luminous nearly a century later.
Rarity Note:
Aside from the copy held by the College of Psychic Studies (to whom Le Rossignol bequeathed much of her work), we trace no institutional holdings of the 1933 edition. Only three copies have appeared at auction. A rare survival of an important, esoteric, and visually mesmerizing work of British spiritualist art.
Condition:
Very good. Binding sound, minor sunning and foxing to boards; contents exceptionally clean, colours bright and gilt details well-preserved.
