MUUMI. The Tampere Art Museum MOOMINS Exhibition Catalogue, 1986. Signed/Dated by Tove Jansson & Tuulikki Pietilä

Tampere, Finland: Tampere Art Museum, 1986. 1st Edition . Soft cover. Near Fine. First Printing. An incredibly rare item of Moomins memorabilia. In 1986 Tove Jansson and her life-partner, the artist Tuulikki Pietilä, donated a huge collection of Moomins-related artwork to Tampere Art Museum, Finland. The collection comprised over 1000 drawings and paintings and 38 three-dimensional tableaux. The collection was first displayed in The Moomins exhibition at Tampere Art Museum along with other original sketches and book illustrations by Jansson. The tableaux were miniature Moomin-themed dioramas crafted by Jansson, Tuulikki Pietilä and their friend, Pentti Eistola. The donation also comprised other works of art by Jansson as well as archival Moomins-related material. An exhibition catalogue was, of course, published to mark the occasion and we are pleased to be able to offer for sale a particularly significant example. Printed in the Finnish language, the catalogue comprises 72 pages with text by Tove Jansson and photography by Per Olov Jansson, the author's brother. Pictorial wrappers, it measures 24cm x 17cm approx. Illustrated copiously, of course, mostly in monotone but with three single colour plates and one double-page colour illustration. The catalogue is itself an extremely rare item. This copy has been SIGNED both by Tove Jansson AND by Tuulikki Pietilä who has also added the date, 28/4/86. The covers are very lightly tanned and there is a crease across the lower corner of the front wrapper. There is a bump to the top edge which has left a small crease to the top edge of some of the pages. Otherwise, in excellent clean condition, Near Fine. Happy to provide further photographs of the book upon request, a maximum of 5 images only per book can be posted on this site.