ROSMASLER, [?Johann August]. 
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Engraver to the German Beau Monde ROSMASLER, [?Johann August] Album ‘Saemtliche Kupferstichwerke des verstorbenen Herrn Rosmaesler in Leipzig’ (title in ink). n.p. 1783. Folio album (520 x 320mm) of ll. 32, [2] blue paper sheets onto which are pasted more than 100 cut-out engravings, ranging in size from 55 x 75 mm to 170 x 220 mm; title in manuscript, along with possible early shelfmark; a couple of leaves creased, some light staining; late eighteenth-century half sheep over marbled boards, spine worn, with splits at head and tail, but holding firm.
Large home-made album of more than one hundred images by the prolific copperplate engraver Johann August Rosmäsler of Leipzig (1752-1783). This extraordinary posthumous compilation of cut-out engraved illustrations includes a wide variety of designs and styles, representing the range of publications Rosmäsler appeared in during his career. Particularly well-represented are ladies’ fashions and coiffures, which he produced for almanacs, magazines and pocket books, such as the first iteration of the Göttinger Musenalmanach, which ran from 1770 to 1807. The intricate head-and-shoulder illustrations vary from region to region, thus Coëffures de Leipsic and Coëffures de Dresde show the extraordinary hair and millinery fashions of the German beau monde, and it is possible to compare these with Coëffures Francoises and, by far the most spectacular, Coëffures de Paris. The styles may be different, but they share the same towering aspect, with beads, jewels, flowers and feathers in abundance. Some are captioned, giving an idea of the events at which these hair designs were paraded, and what they were called. The album also includes numerous vignettes which doubtless appeared as book illustrations, with just about every kind of content represented: lovers, fights, journeys, interiors and exteriors of fine houses, as well as urban, pastoral, and mythological scenes. There are many small portrait roundels, and Rosmäsler’s skill as a silhouettist is also in evidence, with several silhouette-portraits of various sizes, including a large war memorial design for Henry Klausing, possibly intended as relief for a tomb or monument. The Rosmäsler (or Rosmäßler) family of Leipzig produced several engravers in the same generation, whose work is often confused. The brothers Johann Adolph (1770–1821), Friedrich (1775–1858), and Johann August (1752–1783) were apparently sons of a chimney-sweep. They were known and mentioned by Daniel Chodowiecki, and collectively engraved more than 400 book illustrations. This splendid album, a real labour of love, provides an amazing insight not only into the breadth of work produced by a jobbing engraver and illustrator, but also into German literature and society in the late eighteenth century.
4200,- EUR
inkl. 7% USt./incl. 7% VAT
Sachgebiete: Bibliophilie, Buchwesen, Kupferstich, Vorlagenwerke
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