Alchemy takes on many forms, in pop culture it is most often cited as the process used to change lead into gold.
Alchemy is also associated with the search for the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary substance that could transform common metals into gold, as well as having properties that could restore youth and thus confer eternal life.

• 1 color-printed etching and 12 mixed-media heliogravures with woodcut remarque
  

• Published in 1969, the heliogravures are after original gouaches done in 1968-69
  

• I-CC on Rives, the etching signed and 1 unsigned suite on Japon Nacre
  

• 1-2500 on Mandeure, the etching signed only in the plate Several portfolios on Japon Nacre, plus 1 signed suite for artist and staff
  

• 1-100 on large-format Rives paper with remarque, signed Several signed EAs
  

• 4 impressions of the etching on parchment, unsigned Illustrated for the book by Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson), published in 1865.

• 25 lithographs from mixed-media paintings 1-250 on Arches
  

• 15 Hors Commerce (HC) 25 on Japon, lettered A-Y
  

• In 1968, Shorewood Press of New York published 25 color lithographs that were taken from mixed-media paintings by Dali. These were to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the founding of Israel.
  

• The individual prints were issued in a portfolio with text by Columbia University history professor Gerson D. Cohen, and an introduction by David Ben Gurion.
  

• 12 of the lithographs were printed by Mourlot, Paris and 13 by Wolfensberger, Zurich.
  

• Dali would follow this suite five years later with his celebrated "Twelve Tribes of Israel" portfolio of etchings, again commemorating a landmark in the history of the modern state of Israel.

Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) was the most famous Frenchfabulist and probably the most widely read French poet of the 17th century.  It was not until he was past thirty that his literary career began.  His fables, usually called 'La Fontaine Fables', were published over the last 25 years of his life.  The book includes some 240 poems and timeless stories of country folk, heroes from Greek mythology, and familiar beasts from the fables of Aesop, from which La Fontaine unhesitatingly borrowed his material.  Each tale has a moral - an instruction how to behave correctly or how life should be lived. 

Salvador Dalí shared Jean de la Fontaine’s ability to find the irony of life and society.  The eleven engravings with pochoir illustrate Dalí’s take of some his favorite fables. 

The time is the late 1960s, and with "Hallucinogenic Toreador," his masterpiece in oil painted 1968 -70, Salvador Dalí returns to all things Spanish and reveals his fascination with the colorful psychedelic explosion of those mind-bending times. As Sixties' political rebellion gives way to Seventies' decadence, we find the Spanish master undertaking his famous Carmen series of colored lithographs, published in 1970. The brigands, gypsies, and smugglers, who form the cast of this most beloved of operas, are the perfect counterpoint to Dalí's increasingly distracting wealth and fame.

Dalí would depict the bullfight numerous times throughout his career and Bizet's opera, set in Seville and featuring the toreador Escamillo in a primary role, provides Dalí with an ideal context in which to explore this most Spanish pastime. We illustrate here the complete suite of 25 hand-signed lithographs and believe you will agree that it is one of the most exquisite Dalínian triumphs of color and vivacity.

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) wrote his epic poem, the Divine Comedy, during the last thirteen years of his life (circa 1308-21), while in exile from his native Florence. There are three parts to this massive work: Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise. In each section Dante the poet recounts the travels of the Pilgrim "his alter ego" through hell, purgatory, and heaven, where he meets God face to face. The poem works on a number of symbolic levels, much like the Bible, one of its primary sources. Like that sacred text, Dante meant his work and his Pilgrim traveler to serve as models for the reader. He hoped to lead that reader to a greater understanding of his place in the universe and to prepare him for the next life, for the life that begins after death.

The greatness of the Divine Comedy came from Dante's ability to weave together pagan myth, literature, philosophy; Christian theology and doctrine, physics, astrology, cartography, mathematics, literary theory, history, and politics into a complex poem that a wide audience, not just the highly educated, could read. For Dante boldly chose to write his poem of salvation in his own Italian dialect, not in Latin, which was the language of Church, State, and epic poetry during his time. Its impact was so great that Dante's Tuscan dialect became what we recognize as modern Italian.

As one of the greatest works, not just of the late Middle Ages, but of world literature in its entirety, the influence of the Divine Comedy has been incalculable. The poem was immediately successful - Dante's own sons, Pietro and Jacopo, wrote the first commentaries on it - and it continues to be read and taught today.

One has only to consider the four to five hundred manuscripts of the Divine Comedy in existence (an almost unheard-of number), more than four-hundred-some Italian printed editions and the hundreds of English translations to get some idea of this work's impact on Western culture. Clearly, readers have found the Divine Comedy relevant to their lives since its composition nearly seven hundred years ago. Perhaps this is because Dante Alighieri, for all the differences between his era and subsequent ones, wrestled with and wrote about concerns that affect all people who have ever stopped to think about them: What is the purpose of this life? Is there an afterlife? If so, how should I prepare for it? Why, in short, am I here? Dante's answers to those questions will not necessarily be the same as those of each of his many readers, but by asking them he forces each reader to ask them, too, and to wonder how to answer them.

• 12 embossed heliogravures with drypoint etching Fruit images after original gouaches painted on printed illustrations by Dali

• 1-200 on Rives I-CL on Auvergne a-e on Auvergne or Rives for staff and collaborators

• 35 portfolios on Japon, numbered I-XXXV, with an additional suite on Auvergne or Rives several EA on Arches, Auvergne, Rives or Japon.

Companion to the highly regarded "Flordali (Flora Dalinae)" suite of 1968 (ML 227-236), both suites were exhibited side by side in August, 2003 at the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, FL, which includes these suites in their extensive private collections. A typically eccentric blend of humor, eroticism and malevolence, these fruit creatures can only hint at the mind-expanding times during which Dali produced them. The fruit designs are based on illustrations from the classic volume "Pomologie Francaise" by Antoine Poiteau, which was published in 1846. It's not surprising that the relentlessly curious Dali would ferret out what is considered one of the finest illustrated books on the subject of fruit ever made. In the tradition of his other floral-themed designs, these prints take the rather sober, scientific botanical print and transform it into something far greater than a mere representation of external reality.

Hamlet is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, probably written between 1599 and 1601. The play, set in Denmark, recounts how Prince Hamlet exacts revenge on his uncle Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet's father, the King, and then taken the throne and married Hamlet's mother. The play vividly charts the course of real and feigned madnessx from overwhelming grief to seething ragex and explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption.

The protagonist of Hamlet is Prince Hamlet of Denmark, son of the recently deceased King Hamlet and the nephew of King Claudius, his father's brother and successor. After the death of King Hamlet, Claudius hastily marries King Hamlet's widow, Gertrude, Hamlet's mother. In the background is Denmark's long-standing feud with neighboring Norway, and an invasion led by the Norwegian prince, Fortinbras, is expected.

The play opens on a cold winter night at Elsinore, the Danish royal castle. The sentries try to persuade Hamlet's friend Horatio that they have seen King Hamlet's ghost, when it appears again. After hearing from Horatio of the Ghost's appearance, Hamlet resolves to see the Ghost himself. That night, the Ghost appears to Hamlet. He tells Hamlet that he is the spirit of his father, and discloses that Claudius murdered King Hamlet by pouring poison in his ears. The Ghost demands that Hamlet avenge him; Hamlet agrees and decides to feign madness to avert suspicion. He is, however, uncertain of the Ghost's reliability.

Busy with affairs of state, Claudius and Gertrude try to avert an invasion by Prince Fortinbras of Norway. Perturbed by Hamlet's continuing deep mourning for his father and his increasingly erratic behavior, they send two student friends of hisx Rosencrantz and Guildensternx to discover the cause of Hamlet's changed behavior. Hamlet greets his friends warmly, but quickly discerns that they are spies.

Polonius is Claudius' trusted chief counselor; his son, Laertes, is about to resume studies in France, and his daughter, Ophelia, is courted by Hamlet. Neither Polonius nor Laertes approves of the match, and both warn her off. Shortly afterwards, Ophelia meets Hamlet secretly but is so alarmed by his strange antics that she tells her father of Hamlet's state. Polonius blames x ecstasy of love" for Hamlet's madness and informs Claudius and Gertrude. At their next tryst, Hamlet rants at Ophelia, accusing her of immodesty and dismissing her "to a nunnery."

Hamlet remains unconvinced that the Ghost has told him the truth, but the arrival of a troupe of actors at Elsinore presents him with a solution. He will stage a play, re-enacting his father's murder, and determine Claudius' guilt or innocence by studying his reaction. The court assembles to watch the play; Hamlet provides a running commentary throughout. After seeing the Player King murdered with poison in the ears, Claudius abruptly rises and leaves the room: proof positive for Hamlet of his uncle's guilt. Claudius, fearing for his life, banishes Hamlet to England on a pretext, closely watched by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, with a letter instructing that the bearer be killed.

Gertrude summons Hamlet to her bedchamber to demand an explanation. On his way, Hamlet passes Claudius in prayer but hesitates to kill him, reasoning that death in prayer would send him to heaven. In the bedchamber, a furious row erupts between Hamlet and Gertrude. Polonius, spying hidden behind a tapestry, makes a noise; and Hamlet, believing it is Claudius, stabs wildly, killing Polonius. The Ghost appears, urging Hamlet to treat Gertrude gently but reminding him to kill Claudius. Unable to see or hear the Ghost herself, Gertrude takes Hamlet's conversation with it as further evidence of madness. Hamlet hides Polonius' corpse.

Demented by grief at Polonius' death, Ophelia wanders Elsinore singing bawdy songs. Her brother, Laertes, arrives back from France, enraged by his father's death and his sister's madness. Claudius convinces Laertes that Hamlet is solely responsible; then news arrives that Hamlet is still at large. Claudius swiftly concocts a plot. He proposes a fencing match between Laertes and Hamlet in which Laertes will fight with a poison-tipped sword, but tacitly plans to offer Hamlet poisoned wine if that fails. Gertrude interrupts to report that Ophelia has drowned.

Two gravediggers discuss Ophelia's apparent suicide, while digging her grave. Hamlet arrives with Horatio and banters with a gravedigger, who unearths the skull of a jester from Hamlet's childhood, Yorick. Ophelia's funeral procession approaches, led by Laertes. He and Hamlet grapple, but the brawl is broken up.

Back at Elsinore, Hamlet tells Horatio how he escaped and that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. A courtier, Osric, interrupts to invite Hamlet to fence with Laertes. With Fortinbras' army closing on Elsinore, the match begins. Laertes pierces Hamlet with a poisoned blade but is fatally wounded by it himself. Gertrude drinks the poisoned wine and dies. In his dying moments, Laertes is reconciled with Hamlet and reveals Claudius' murderous plot. In his own last moments, Hamlet manages to kill Claudius and names Fortinbras as his heir. When Fortinbras arrives, Horatio recounts the tale and Fortinbras orders Hamlet's body borne off in honour.

Illustrating literary works by the enfant terrible of French letters, Three Plays by the Marquis de Sade, is the perfect vehicle for Dalí, who almost single-handedly brought the arena of sexual disturbance and strange desire to high fine art in the Surrealist period between World Wars. Indeed, it was the rise of Surrealism in the time of Freud, with Dalí at its fore, that engaged the mysteries of human dystopia and psychic aberration as fair game in art.

Surprisingly restrained, nonetheless, these great lithographs of 1969 seem to gain their power from the tension of anticipating sex, as if the folio were a sylvan metaphor for foreplay. In fact, only two or three of the entire set can be said to illustrate the sexuality of de Sade's texts. Dali is more fascinated by the theater of desire --its catwalks, runways and pedestals. The works' greatest message is that the waiting game is the most inflaming  lust and ardor, best embodied in grand entrances and intoxicated exits.

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Petits Nus is a vignette of eight engravings published in 1973 by Editions Argillet in Paris. They were inspired by the suite of etchings that Dali made for Ronsard's "Amours de Cassandre". The eight engravings were published in three different groups. The first group of 100 impressions were printed in red on Japon, the next 150 impression were in red on Arches, and finally an edition of 95 plus 10 EA were printed in black with pochoir on Japon paper.

Dalí carried on a dialogue and friendship with Picasso throughout their lives, both shared the position of Spanish expatriate masters who had sojourned to Paris in search of the artistic milieu of their aspirations. It is no surprise that later Dalí would choose to transform Picasso's famous cycle on the Spanish bullfight, the Tauromáquia Suite of 1957-59.

Like Picasso's excellent series, the Dalinian version (1966-67) is replete with the drama and spectacle of the sport. Dalí goes one better in his version, however, engorging each panel with allusions to the pompous Spanish court ceremonial and all form of morbid Catholic rite and  superstition.

• 1970 21 color-printed drypoint etchings Books: every book contains 20 hand-monogrammed (initialed by Dali) drypoint etchings and 1 hand-signed drypoint etching (the first plate)
  

• The French edition: 115 on Arches, of which the first 25 (I-XXV) copies contain an additional hand-signed suite.
  

• 10 on Japon numbered HC1-HC10. We offer the hand-signed suite from edition XV/XXV

It is with a series of artistic reflections on the theme of the Twelve Tribes that Salvador Dali celebrates the 25th anniversary of Israel. The evolution of the tribes from their descendants up to the advent, after two thousand years of exile, of the third Jewish state, constitutes, without a doubt, the development of a surrealistic history. It is for this reason that Salvador Dali is the most apt artist to depict the first Israelites. In the manner that Dali treats the theme of this suite, Dali is able to attain the highest degree of pictorial art. He employs the same techniques and skill he uses in his experiments with poems, cinematic scenarios, interior design, fashion, furniture and jewelry. The most important thing for us, in Israel, is that Dali knows how to represent, with his own creative style, our ancient thoughts and dreams, giving meaning to our tribal memories. However ambiguous or ambivalent this work, the equal of any other work by Dali, it carries for all of us who live and work in Israel, a precise significance. With his diverse and abundant imagination, Dali is able to immortalize the Israeli civilization at its roots, and give concrete expression to the existence and development of its mystical characters. Abba Eban Jerusalem November 1972Dali "The Twelve Tribes of Israel" Suite, 1973