Austro-Hungarian Menu Collection

Vienna; Bratislava, 1891. Contemporary scrapbook (25 x 18.5 cm.), 32 leaves containing thirty-one menus, mounted rectos only. This collection of menus is mostly sourced from Vienna, in large part from the Metropole Hotel and Frohner's Hotel Imperial, but there are also four from the Palugyay Palace in Bratislava. Although the menus come from only a few hotel restaurants, there is variety of design style, with some of the menus printed, and others handwritten on a pre-printed card. A few menus contain original photographic portraits, and others exhibit a striking Orientalism. One of the menus serves as a place card, and has the name "Carl Von Oberleithner" inked on the verso. Von Oberleithner was a successful businessman in the Hemp and Flax industry, and perhaps this was his collection. The menus are ordered chronologically, covering a ten-year period starting in 1881. A bit of fading and soiling to some of the menus, but overall in very good condition. The gilt-titled and decorated binder has some edgewear to the heavy card stock pages, and the cloth is rubbed and splitting at the hinges, otherwise in very good condition. Front paste-down contains the bookplate, "From the Books of Thomas and Jania Erwin". The Erwins were book collectors of significance, noted for their collection of Lewis Carroll material.