KHIGER (Yefim). Azbouka v kartinkakh. [Alphabet in pictures]. Raduga. Moscow. Leningrad. 1925. In-4 (28 x 22 cm). (12) pp. including covers: paper covers lithographed in color, vertical lines of blue circles with illustrations of toys and ornaments of twists framing the illustration in gray shadows of the title, on the first, same patterns with, in the center, mentions of edition and initials of the publisher, in blue and gray, on the second. Unique edition. Painter's alphabet influenced by Jewish art, the "Art World" and modernity. Work of the artist Efim Yakovlevitch Khiger (1899-1955), Jewish Soviet painter trained in Odessa and in the Vkhumtemas of Moscow. He lived and worked in Leningrad, participating in the major exhibitions of his time. Member of the Union of Artists of the USSR. From 1931, he collaborated with the Lenfilm film studio. Covers where Khiger modernizes and adapts for the book a recurrent ornamental motif of the Raduga editions. A first circular illustration adorns, like a frontispiece, the reverse side of the cover, showing a young boy reading an alphabet book in a decor of roses with a stylized frame. This is followed by eight pages of two to four lithographed pictures, all in colors of gray-green, ochre, blue and black. Each page in a geometric gray-green frame. An illustration by letter of the alphabet, captioned with the name of the occurrence whose typography resumes the color of the frame, with a black initial. The artist, in the choice of his illustrations, manages to mix tradition and avant-garde. The modern city, with its high, cubic buildings, contrasts with the next page describing the country isbas in a pure Russian Jewish style. The traditional toys and the Russian stall overcome the suspension bridge to the greatest modernity. The worker, and the gleaming golden yellow factories, is followed by the pigman and the chimney sweep. Pioneers, cup with the silhouette of Lenin and his date of death, 1924 [...], precede the last page with the illustrated accent marks and an alphabet in a capital lettering where the pre-revolutionary letters have been eliminated. Letter from the artist to Yacov Rubantchik written in purple pencil above the frontispiece and dated August 8, 1925. Yakov Ossipovich Rubantchik (1899-1948) was a Soviet avant-garde architect. Precious primer. Very well preserved with a small restored crack at the foot of the spine.