Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller

Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller

Das Märchen vom Sinn - Ein Mysterium - (The Fairy Tale of Sense - A Mystery)

Berlin: Einhorn-Presse, 1927. First printing. Hardcover. IX of L; IX handwritten with Lechter monogram, and PRIVAT added on colophon. Einhorn-Presse Opus V. Folio. 14 leaves. Original turquoise Saffian Morocco with elaborate gilt decor, ruling and lettering on covers and spine, housed in marbled paper-covered slipcase. Gilt dentelles. Polished gilt top edge. Printed to handmade old laid paper. Decorative borders on endpapers. Brown ribbon marker.

The calligraphic dedication page to G. S. Ellino, with excerpt of Rilke poem, in blue and turquoise with extraordinary circular, decorative design and additional dedication "To the Holy Night of Birth, Light and Love." Dated December 24, 1927 by Melchior. Half title printed in black with publisher's device. Beautifully framed title pages on facing pages with variant publisher's devices. Beautifully designed with decorative framing in black, initials and medallions in blue and turquoise throughout. The plates for this unique handwritten edition were destroyed after printing was completed.

With penciled name Elisabeth Gundolf, the wife of Friedrich Gundolf, a renowned German poet, literary scholar and an important member of the circle around Stefan George, on front free endpaper. She was an economist, writer and translator known for her posthumous publication her husbands works. Her 1944 Oxford lectures "Meetings with Rainer Maria Rilke and Stefan George" were published in 1919 and 1923. The German Literature Archive Marbach published the correspondence between Elisabeth and her husband Friedrich Gundolf in 2015. Text in German. Light wear of binding at edges. Ribbon marker lightly frayed and knotted at end. Very lightly foxed at first and last few pages. Slipcase with very light wear along edges and lichtly sunned. Very good+ condition. Item #51105

Melchior Lechter (1865-1937) was the founder of the Einhorn-Press (1909) and the printer for many of Stefan George's publications. It is said that it was his contact with Stefan George, Lechter illustrated George's first publication "Das Jahr der Seele" and many of his other publications, that inspired Lechter to pursue book art. The connection to Lechter's printer Otto von Holten also was established through Stefan George. After his apprenticeship Lechter attended the Academy of Arts in Berlin in 1884 to which he was associated for ten years. Lechter's designs were awarded a major prize at the Exhibition Universelle (better known as the 1900 Paris Exposition). The "Consecration at the Mystical Spring," completed in 1903 at the Pallenberg Hall, is considered his greatest work. It was destroyed during an Allied air raid in 1943. Lechter joined the Theosophical Society in 1906 and visited its headquarters in India four years later with the writer Karl Wolfskehl. His diary of this journey was published in a limited edition at his own Eichhorn Press. Lechter died shortly after his 72nd birthday while visiting the grave of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke.

Price: $2,750.00

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