Book - Hans Christian Andersen: Gedichte. Vienna–Leipzig, 1917

Library / Book Art Collection

Accession Nr.: 2014.53.1
Artist/Maker:
Wacik, Franz (1883 - 1938) / graphic designer
Date of production:
1917
Materials: calfskin binding; paper; paper board
Techniques: printed with cliché
Dimensions:
height: 18,2 cm
width: 13,5 cm
thickness: 1 cm
weight: 254 g
Published in 1917 in 1000 copies, this illustrated book contains poems by Hans Christian Andersen. This is the 32nd of the first 100 numbered copies. The boards are bound in red calfskin. The front cover, gilded with panel stamps, has a rose each above and below the title, with a small child standing in the chalice of the top flower, in reference to the heroine of Andersen’s popular tale, Thumbelina. The same frame and roses are repeated on the back cover, with the publisher’s initials, AWV (Artur Wolf Verlag) in the centre.
The endpaper bears a pattern of stylized blue, red and orange flowers in square fields with green borders. The upper edge of the book is gilded, the woven headbands are green. The illustrator was Franz Waczik, the book was printed in Friedrich Jasper’s Vienna shop, and the binding—probably also the design of Franz Waczik—is unsigned.