Ex Libris Jussi Avonius, by Hugo Hiibus purchased from a collection in Italy, "Hugo Hiibus | estonia" written on back in pencil Humourous man in knee deep water wearing an lifebuoy/life preserver. Hugo Hiibus (born in 1929) is a popular Estonian cartoonist and personality. He studied at the Estonian State Institute of the Arts, graduating in graphic art. From 1955-1957 he worked in the newspaper People's Voice, and in 1957-1959 in the journal Pikker as an artistic editor. In the years 1972-1984 he worked in the editorial office of the Kodumaa newspaper. He was a member of the ENSV Art Foundation (1961). His first cartoon appeared at the Institute in 1950. Hiibus has been an active exlibris and poster artist and a bookmaker. The cartoons of Hugo Hiibus have been published in almost all editions published in Estonia. Hiibas is both a member of the Estonian Artists' Union (1960) and a Journalist Association (1958). He is also a member of the Board of the Estonian Humor Union.

Ex Libris V. Krumpky (signed) 4.75 x 6.75", black ink on paper signed by artist on the  front in pencil

Ex Libris Nagi Arpad Daniel - Tartu 3.5 x 4.75", signed on the back, presumably by and for the Estonian artist, Arpad Daniel Nagy, Tartu is a city in Estonia nude woman sitting on rock in the water, behind her a bridge. Arpad Daniel Nagy was a creative visual artist. Arpad Daniel Nagy was born in 1922 and died in 1985.  Arpad Daniel Nagy was largely inspired by the 1930s growing up. The period of the 1930s is characterised by the conflict between a number of political ideologies, including Marxist Socialism, Capitalist Democracy, and the Totalitarianism of both Communism and Fascism. Artistic output in the United States was heavily impacted at the time by the Great Depression, and a number of artists took to focusing on ideas of humility and the ordinary man. For the first time in US history, artists began to explore into political subjects and attempted to use their art to impact society. Themes such as poverty, lack of affordable housing, anti-lynching, anti-fascism, and workers' strikes were prevalent in many artists’ work. In the Soviet Union, Stalin’s government required urgent funds to implement the rapid industrialisation demanded by the first Five Year Plan. It initiated a secret plan to sell off treasures from the State Hermitage Museum in Leningrad (St. Petersburg), including a primary list of two hundred and fifty rare paintings by the Old Masters, many which found their way to the collection of Andrew Mellon via the New York based art dealing company, Knoedler. Surrealism continued to dominate in Europe, and had influence on an international scale. Artists such as Frida Kahlo and Diego Riviera in Mexico, worked to incorporate the ideas posed by Surrealism into their radical political ideologies, developing a new kind of magic realism. The decade took a ominous turn with the birth of National Socialism in Germany, followed by Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1933. By the end of the 1930s, the Second World War had begun; which preoccupied both artists and the global population.