Deutsche Kunst- und Antiquitätenmesse [Editor]: Die Weltkunst (5.1931)

Jahrg. V, Nr. 49 vom 6. Dezember 1931

DIE WELTKUNST

9

(Fortsetzung von Seite 6)
Stimmungen ab. Frickes Weiher mit Kies-
grube zeigt in seiner ungebrochenen Farben-
freudigkeit eine starke Begabung. Schülein ist
mit einem Pariser Vorstadtpark und einer An-
sicht des Hafens von Toulon vertreten, beides
vorzügliche Arbeiten in der anspruchslosen
Art des Künstlers. Vorzüglich ist die schwere
Wetterstimmung in Sepp Meindls Lermooser
Landschaft wiedergegeben. Von Kreibig finden
wir mit drei Werken seiner grotesken Malerei,
die Ölbilder von A. Jutz sind von der gleichen
Farbenkraft wie seine Aquarelle, denen wir
neulich in der Staatl. Graph. Sammlung be-
gegneten. Ungemein ausdrucksvoll sind
Geiselers Rheinbilder und Rauhs Landschaft
mit Birke und Zigeuner wagen. Noch einige
Namen seien genannt: Büger, Schlageter,
Padua, Balwe, Neresheimer, Urschbach.
L. F. F.
y\julfionsz)orb<ericht'e
Gemälde, Teppiche
Berlin, Vorb. 12. Dez.
Durch das Kunstauktionsh aus Rud.
Elsas wird am 12. Dezember eine Sammlung
hochrangiger Gemälde neuerer Meister ver-
steigert, die die besten Namen umfaßt. Wir
nennen hier nur Hosemann, Hoguet, Lessing,
Spitzweg, Trübner, Schuch, Defregger, Len-
bach, Stuck, Liebermann, Slevogt, Corinth u. a.,
die z. T. mit Hauptwerken von hoher Qualität
vertreten sind. Im Anschluß daran gelangt
eine Sammlung von feinsten Perserteppichen,
z. T. mit Museumsexpertisen, zum Ausruf.
Moderne belgische Gemälde
Brüssel, Vorb. 7. Dez.
In der Galerie Georges Giroux ge-
langt am 7. Dezember eine Sammlung neuerer
belgischer Meister, darunter importante Ar-
beiten von Baron, Boulenger, Delaunois,
Braekeleer, Degreef, Evenepoel, Ensor, Laer-
mans, Ronner, Jacob Smits und Verheyden, zur
Auktion.
Bibliothek
Duc de Vendöme -f-
Paris, Vorb. 9./12. Dez.
Durch Mes F. Lair-Dubreuil und
Aj Couturier sowie die Experten MM. Ch.
Bosse und L. Giraud-Badin wird am
9./12. Dezember im Hotel Drouot der erste
Teil der Prachtbibliothek des verstorbenen
Mgr. le Duc de Vendöme, die aus dem früheren
Besitz des Herzogs von Nemours stammt, ver-
steigert. Dieser erste Teil umfaßt, in großen-
teils herrlichen alten Luxuseinbänden, Werke
zur Theologie, Rechtswissenschaft, Kunst,
ferner schöne Literatur, illustrierte Bücher,
Zeichnungen und Lithographien der Romantik.
Eine große Zahl seltener Kunst-Bücher und
Erstausgaben findet sich hier in vortrefflichen
Exemplaren.
Sotheby-Auktionen
London, Vorb. Dez.
Bei Sotheby & Co. finden im Dezember
einige bemerkenswerte Versteigerungen statt.
Die Gemälde - Auktion vom 9. Dezember
bringt eine interessante Serie von 33 Porträt-
Studien John Downmans, ein Damenbildnis von
Cosway, Pastellbildnisse von John Rüssel, ein
der frühfranzösischen Schule zugeschriebenes
Gemälde „Christus im Hause des Simeon“ und
einen im Katalog als Rembrandt bezeichneten
Wir zahlen
pro Exemplar
WELTKUNST-VERLAG, BERLIN
„Goldwäger“. — Es folgt am 10. Dezember
eine Versteigerung von prähistorischen, an-
tiken und naturvölkischen Altertümern und
Skulpturen. — Auf der Versteigerung am
11. Dezember wird eine bedeutende Ter-
racotta-Büste eines jugendlichen Christus an-
geboten, die unleugbare Beziehungen zu dem
jungen Leonardo aufweist, ferner ein inter-
essanter Elfenbein-Tragaltar, eine vielleicht
niederländische Arbeit des 11. Jahrhunderts.
Ausgezeichnet das Mobiliar mit außergewöhnlich
schönen Chippendale- und Sheraton-Arbeiten.
Nachberichte
Englisch-amerikanische
Erstausgaben
Chicago, Nachb. 27./28. Okt.
Einen interessanten Überblick über die
Preise von Erstausgaben moderner englisch-
amerikanischer Literatur bot die Versteigerung
einer Privatbibliothek durch die Chicago
Book and Art Auctions Inc. Für
A. Bennets „Old wifes tale“ (1908) wurden
$ 86, für Cathers „April Twilight“ (1903) $ 67,
für Mark Twains „Huckleberry Finn“ (1885)
$ 41, für Joseph Conrads „Almayers Folly“
$ 71, für Hawthornes „Scarlet letters“ (1850)
$ 53, Lafcadio Hearns „One of Cleopatras
aights“ $ 25, für Hemingways „In our
time“ und „Three stories“ $ 88 bzw. 78, James
Joyces „Ulysses“ $ 125, D. H. Lawrences „Lost
Siri“ (1920) $ 47, McFees „Casuals of the sea“
(1916) $ 75, E. L. Masters’ „Spoon river antho-
logie“ (1915) $ 87, Frank Norris „Yvernelle“
(1892) $ 70 und H. G. Wells’ „Love and Mr.
Lewisham“ (1900) $ 70 bezahlt. Hierbei han-
delte es sich in keinem Falle um limitierte
°der Luxus-Ausgaben, die auf dieser Auktion
entsprechend hohe Preise erzielten.

3Mk. der Nr. 2 vom
Jahrgang 1927

tELnglish Supplement

Remarks about the
History of Collecting
Autographs
by Hellmut Meyer
Since when does one collect autographs ?
If you understand by “collecting autographs”
the gathering of documents and manuscripts
which seem important for a reason, it goes
back to ancient times. The Romans, who had
a strong sense for history, had a special room
in their house, called the “Tablinum”, where
they used to keep their documents.
In the early middle-age cloisters were the
only places, where intellectual things were
cultivated and we owe it to them to have pre-
served all Manuscripts available now. Later
only, archives of towns and princes assumed
these functions. But this, of course, is no real
autograph collecting in the modern sense.
Because to-day one collects autographs of Per-
sonalities whose ways of life, whose hand-
writing etc. are expected to create an intimate
relation with collector who is interested in
this or that personality.
The first collector of autographs, in this
somehow modern way, was Goethe. He, for
instance, kept an enve-
lope of one of Schiller’s
letters, because he
thought it so typically
written. He did not do
that from the grapho-
logical point of view,
but intuitively he had
conceived that exactly
that address revealed
in some way the man
Schiller.
A certain fury of
autograph collecting led
to somehow sad results,
as completeness became
more important than
the idea of the content
itself. The Capital
thing was to possess a
kind of autographs and
the possibly greatest
number of it. Many
letters were without
signatures, which were
often cut away and are
still forming the Con¬
stant anger of dealers
and of all those who
take a serious interest
in these things.
About the beginning
of the last Century spe¬
cial collections got more
significance. Historical
and political changes
had fundamental in-
fluence on autograph
collectors. We may be
thankful for living in
such a violently moved
and interesting epoch.
For a while mon-
archistic and partiotic
documents were enorm-
ously required for, now
letters of princes can
hardly be sold. Frederic
the Great, of course, as
well as Napoleon and
Charles V. are still of unaltered interest.
Soon after the Revolution nobody asked for
monarchistic documents, while a socialist wave
came over the country, Bakunin, Lenin,
Trotzki, Liebknecht, Lassalle, Ebert were much
researched, even the poets of War of Liberty
times. Music and poetry, however, are little
affected by those political movements.
Nowadays autographs of scientists are
pronouncedly en vogue; and as technic and
Science are dominating the world more and
more this new interest is reasonably justified
and very sane. It is useless to struggle
against the ruling forces of the present and
this now awakening tendency in the domain
of autograph collecting confirms many a
valuable outlook for the future.
Forthcomiiig Sales

The Lothian Library
The only known copy of the great Anglo-
Saxon classic, the Bückling Homilies, a
masterpiece of early pre-Conquest manuscript,
is now in the United States and will be sold
at auction, property of the Marquess of
Lothian, at the American Art Associa-
tion Anderson Galleries, New York
City, in January (1932). The Lothian library
comes from the two residences of the Mar-
quess, Bückling Hall, Norfolk, England, and
Newbattle Abbey, Midlothian, Scotland, and is
the choicest collection of illuminated manu-
scripts, incunabula and early printed books
ever to come up at auction in America. The
Lothian library is one of the few notable
family libraries which has been maintained
intact up to the present day in the British
Isles, and has been catalogued by Seymour
de Ricci, the well-known expert. There is
no single item in the collection that is not of
great importance and many are matchless and
unique, and have never appeared at auction
before.

Foremost among the manuscripts is the
10 th Century Anglo-Saxon masterpiece, the
Bückling Homilies, the importance of which
cannot be overestimated. It belonged at one
time to the city of Lincoln and from the
13th Century until the year 1609 Lincoln
mayors and sheriffs have scribbled records of
their nomination or election in its margins. The
existence of the Bückling Homilies is recorded
in every Standard work on early English litera-
ture as well as in the Encyclopaedia Britan-
nica. Two important Psalters, the 8th Cen-
tury Lincoln Psalter, hardly less valuable than
the Bückling Homilies, and the Tikytt, or
Tikyll, Psalter, from Wyrkesopp in Notting-
hamshire, appear among these early manu-
scripts. The 8th Century Lincoln Psalter, in
Latin, on 88 leaves of vellum, is thought to
have been written at Canterbury, and closely
resembles a Roman Psalter in the British
Museum from St. Augustin’s Abbey at Canter-
bury. The Psalter appears to have belonged
to the city of Lincoln at some time,
but how it got into the hands of the
Corporation or into the Bückling Library re-
mains a mystery. The Tikytt Psalter
(illustrated on page 3), written and illumi-
nated on fine vellum, in England, about the
year 1300, bears illuminations on more than
200 pages which reach a height hitherto un-
known in early British illuminating. Penned

and illuminated by Brother John Tikytt, or
Tikyll, Prior of the Augustinian Monastery of
Wyrkesopp, now Radnor, in Nottinghamshire,
it is a masterpiece of the illuminator’s art.
Miniatures, large or small, appear on every
page up to leaf 90 and each page has a
beautiful little painting at the foot of each
column of text, with elaborate titles in gold
and colors for each Psalm, the text with
splendid borders and bands.
The magnificently illuminated manuscript
Boccaccio, “Des Cas des Nobles Hommes et
Femmes”, on vellum, written about 1430, in

France, probably at Paris, is another excee-
dingly important item. St. Augustin’s “The
City of God”, translated into French by Raoul
de Praelles, on vellum, about 1410, — has for
its first miniature a splendid portrait of the
King receiving the newly completed book from
De Praelles. Other beautifully illuminated
manuscripts include the “Romance of the
Rose” (“Le Roman de la Rose”), 14th Century,
and another early 15th Century Boccaccio on
vellum, probably done at Paris.
Early illuminated manuscript bibles include
the 12th Century “Royal Bible”, in Latin, on
vellum, written in England, and superbly
illuminated (reproduction on page 1).
The romance of “Floriant and Florete”, in
French verses, on vellum, 14th Century, is an
unique manuscript of French chivalry. The
discovery of this “lost” work in the Lothian
library at Newbattle Abbey is of great
literary importance.
In the incunabula and early printed books
appears the first dated bible known, the match-
less Latin Bible of 1462, printed at Mainz,
which is also the first example of a book
formally divided into two volumes.
Collection G. de Mire
Primitive Art
Auction Sale on Decemberlöth
In spite of the critical Situation Me Bellier
and the experts Messrs. Ch. Ratton and
L. Carre are going to seil by auction the
collection Mire, which represents the most im-
portant collection of primitive art. In a do-
main, so little experienced so far, only the
very first rate quality of this collection can
pretend to have a successful result. It contains
negroe’s art and art from the pre-Columbian
America: from Mexico and Peru mainly.
The Sale will begin by masks and figures
from the hinterland of the ' Ivory Coast,
especially from the Stretches inhabited by the
Dan, Man, Yakoe tribes near the Liberian
frontier. These names become somehow popu-
lär in Paris but represent hardly any precise
geographical notion. One very beautiful mask
from the Dan region deserves mentioning, it
distinguishes itself by a strongly projecting
jaw and by genuine hair on head. Two sta-
tuettes of the Habe strike by their cubistic
style, different from the softer art of the
Ivory Coast.
The Pangwe show real first rate works:
ancester figures (reproduced in our November
29th issue) which are the most beautiful
things one has found of this kind; the lines
of head and body are very harmonious and
produce the impression of a natural rythm.
Belgian Congo is represented with a most
amusing collection of applied art: cups, boxes,
vases; a neck support of the Wagimba and
a mask of the Warega, both ivory, are parti-
culiarly valuable.
Works of Eskimos, from Old Mexico and
Middle America form a considerable collection
of masks and man’s and animal’s figures,
Trujillo, Chimbote, Nazka vases give illumi-
nating impressions of Peruvian ceramics. Indo-
nesian and Gandhara works will close the
sale. The Collection of Mr. G. de Mire pleases
very much by its extremely refined taste which
helped it to become the appreciated collection
of primitive art and one can but wish the best
success for the sale of so knowingly gathered
objects.

Reconstructionsand models
For the intuition of historical monuments,
antique buildings and classical archaeological
places the models of reconstruction, as they
are performed by the Berlin architect Hans
Schleif, a member of the German expedi-
tions for excavations in Greece and Egypt,
prove to be very appropriate and instructive.
Our illustration on this page shows the sight of
a reconstruction of the Apollo-District of
Delphi. A model of Nurembergh, as a gift of
the “Society of friends of the German Art”,
New York, has its place in the Metropoli-
tan Museum, New York. An Olympia-model
is a present of the Emperor William II. to the
Archaeological Museum in Olympia. A same
model and another of Delphi, both ordered by
the Metropolitan Museum, are now on the way
to New York.

ALT-CHI NA
STÄNDIGE AUSSTELLUNG
ALTCHINESISCHE KUNST
NEUERWERBUNGEN AUS CHINA

DR. OTTO BURCHARD & CO.
G. M. B. H.
BERLIN - PEKING - SHANGHAI - NEW YORK
BERLIN W 9, FRIEDRICH-EBERT STRASSE 5 NEW YORK, 13, EAST 57‘h STREET


Hans Schleif (Berlin), Rekonstruktions-Modell
des Apollo-Bezirkes von Delphi
Reconstruction of the Apollo-District of Delphi