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Bilder-Alphabet zur Erweekung des Scharfsinns
Nurnberg: G.N. Renner, 1838. Item #05347
One of the Most Beautiful 'ABC' Books of the Biedermeier Period
Johann Voltz's Wonderful Picture Alphabet Depicting the Everyday Life of Country and Townsfolk
VOLTZ, Johann Michael. [ABC]. Bilder-Alphabet zur Erweekung des Scharfsinns oder viele Original Darstellungen, nach jedem Buchstaben in 24 Gemälden. Eine neue Bilderlust herausgegeben für Kleine und Grosse. Schwarze und illum Ausgabe. Nürnberg: G.N. Renner, ca. 1838.
Translation: "Picture alphabet to awaken the intellect; or many original depictions, after each letter in 24 paintings. A new joy in pictures for young and old. Black and colored edition."
Folio (13 1/4 x 9 3/8 inches; 337 x 238 mm.). Complete with the pictorial hand colored lithograph title-page and twenty four magnificent hand colored lithograph plates, all heightened with gum arabic. Two lithographed leaves of text at end. Twenty-seven leaves complete. Plates "I" and "J" are combined on one plate which has the date MDCCCXXXVIII - the letter "Y" was left out by Voltz.
Mid twentieth century quarter black calf with black calf corners over patterned boards. Smooth spine, plain endpapers. An exceptionally fine and clean copy with just some 'color bleed' showing on the verso of the plates only.
Exceptionally rare hand colored alphabet by Johann Michael Voltz (1784-1858).
Each plate represents a letter of the alphabet with numerous objects and actions beginning with the relevant letter, two tables at the back list the words applying to each plate.
Extraordinarily rare series of ABC tables, which are counted among the most beautiful ABC books of the Biedermeier period, in the hand colored edition on thick paper. The finely executed, magnificently colored and partly washed plates represent alphabetical search images in which the individual objects and people, each beginning with the same letter, have been combined to form large, colorful, colorful and partly whimsical scenes rich in figures. "The idyllic-realistic children's book illustrations by Voltz describe scenes from bourgeois and rural life in an idealized way, which, despite all idealization, provide an insight into the life of these classes" (H. Herbst in LKJ IV, p.533).
The Biedermeier period was an era in Central Europe between 1815 and 1848 during which the middle class grew in number and the arts appealed to common sensibilities. It began with the Congress of Vienna at the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and ended with the onset of the Revolutions of 1848.
OCLC locates just two copies in libraries and institutions worldwide: Princeton University (NJ,US); Staatsbibloithek Zu Berlin (Germany). Braunschweig University Library have an uncolored copy.
Hauswedell 55 (with color); Düsterdieck 666 (black and white edition bound without the 2 ll. text). Stuck-Villa II, 10.
Not in Wegehaupt Alte Deutche Kinderbücher band I-IV; Rümann [Old Children's Books]; Brunken, Hurrelmann & Pech Handbuch zur Kinder, Schug Die Bilderwelt im Kinderbuch or Pressler Schöne alte Kinderbücher.
Price: $16,500.00