Published by Tampere Art Museum in 1986 to accompany the first Moomins exhibition. First printing, in Finnish. Softcover, 72 pages, approximately 24 × 17 cm.
An exceptional copy, signed on the title page by both Tove Jansson and Tuulikki Pietilä. Pietilä also dated the catalogue 28/4/86, placing the signatures at the time of the exhibition itself. Copies signed by either artist are uncommon; examples signed together and contemporaneously dated are very rarely encountered.
The exhibition marked a defining moment in the preservation of Jansson’s Moomin art. In 1986, Jansson and Pietilä donated more than 1,000 drawings and paintings to Tampere Art Museum, together with 38 three-dimensional tableaux created with their friend Pentti Eistola. The collection was shown alongside original sketches and book illustrations and became the foundation of Tampere’s internationally important Moomin holdings.
The catalogue contains text by Tove Jansson and photography by her brother, Per Olov Jansson. It is extensively illustrated, mainly in monochrome, with three single-colour plates and one double-page colour illustration.
Condition: Near Fine. The covers are very lightly tanned, with a crease across the lower corner of the front wrapper. There is a bump to the top edge and a small corresponding crease to the upper edges of some pages. Otherwise, the catalogue is exceptionally clean.
