FAUST

Leipzig: Inselverlag, 1912. Copy specially printed for Henry and Maria Newman on Van Gelder handmade paper (in addition to 100 numbered copies on this special paper and a regular edition of 515 copies). 455 x 320 mm. (18 x 12 3/4"). 2 p.l., 187, [1] pp.Edited by Hans Gerhard Gräf.
IMPRESSIVE SCARLET CRUSHED MOROCCO BY E. A. ENDERS OF LEIPZIG (stamp-signed on rear turn-in) DESIGNED BY E. R. WEISS, covers bordered by three gilt rules, five-pointed star at each corner, upper cover with author and illustrator names and title in elegant lettering, raised bands, spine gilt in compartments with diagonal crossed fillets or a theatrical mask centerpiece, gilt lettering, gilt-ruled turn-ins, dark blue raw silk endleaves, top edge gilt. In a (slightly worn) gray cardboard slipcase. WITH 17 COLLOTYPE PLATES AFTER LITHOGRAPHS BY EUGÈNE DELACROIX. Sarkowski 581. ◆Tiny snag to leather on one corner, but A VERY FINE COPY inside and out, with only the most trivial imperfections.

This is a specially printed and finely bound deluxe copy of Goethe's classic dramatic work, here illustrated with reproductions of an extraordinary suite of images by a leading painter of the French Romantic period. Originally made for the 1828 French edition, Eugène Delacroix's "Faust" illustrations were said by Ray to be the finest of their time. Delacroix's inspiration for these lithographs, Ray tells us, came not from the original text, but from seeing a London performance of "Faust" in 1825. The artist "intended them to be a manifesto for Romanticism in art" and resolved "to astonish the middle class" with this "deliberate act of aggression." Astonished they were: critics, accustomed to the classical French "stiff, formal" engravings, were outraged, and even Delacroix's fellow Romantics wondered if he had gone too far. However, the artist found a champion in none other than the author: Goethe declared, "One must acknowledge that this M. Delacroix has a great talent, which in 'Faust' has found its true nourishment. The French public reproach him for an excess of savage force, but, actually, here it is perfectly suitable. . . . I have to agree that M. Delacroix has surpassed the scenes my writing has conjured up in my own imagination." Ray praises "the drive, inventiveness, and sustained harmony of style of the entire series," concluding that it is "one of the supreme illustrated books of the world." The present work reproduces Delacroix's original lithographs using collotype--a photolithographic technique capable of generating multiple copies that are highly detailed and of excellent quality. Fine craftsmanship is also evident in the deluxe binding designed by Emil Rudolph Weiss (1875-1942), a German graphic designer, painter, typographer, and poet, and executed by the firm of Emil Alexander Enders. Family owned until 1929, the E. A. Enders bindery opened its doors in 1859, and by 1913, the year after this book was produced, the firm employed 500 workers and had 230 machines. The hand-bookbinding operation was directed by designer Walter Tiemann, who, according to an advertisement of the period, supervised "the most outstanding book artisans." The present copy is particularly special, having been printed outside of the limitation for Henry and Maria Newman. Henry Newman (1868-1917) was a wealthy merchant and art collector with a penchant for French and German Impressionists, and whose acquisitions included paintings by Monet, Degas, Van Gogh, and Max Liebermann. Though the present work departs a little from his usual collecting interests, the combination of a handsomely bound classic German text with strikingly unconventional illustrations by a major French painter must have proved too great a temptation..