Antiquariat Daniela Kromp
MINIATURE BOOKS – RARISSIMA – BIEDERMEIER. 
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[Anonymous]: Kalender für das Jahr 1831 [Calendar for the year 1831]. Vienna, H[einrich] F[riedrich] Müller, [1830]. Accordion fold calendar with 14 unnumbered pages (including title page and imprint), printed on green glazed paper, and 12 small collages, made from cut-out embossed and handcoloured or gilt paper, pasted on transparent gauze, framed with printed violet glazed paper. The picture for each month is a little bird (each in a different colouring), holding a floral wreath with a golden letter in its beak, with these letters building the words TAUSEND GLÜCK [one thousand luck] when the calendar is unfolded. Original multicoloured enamelled (and fire gilt?) embossed brass covers (4 x 5,3 cm), in matching modern morocco clamshell box, lined with brocade paper, with glass window to front (4,8 x 6,3 cm).
An exceedingly rare survivor, with no copies of this particular volume recorded in KVK / OCLC; no copies of any volume in Musenalm nor in MAK (Vienna), collections online. – Miniature calendars of this kind appear to have been produced in very small quantities only and due to their tiny size and their delicacy, only few examples survived. I have been able to find evidence of this kind of calendar produced by Müller (accordion fold, with pictures on gauze, under embossed metal covers) only for the years 1829, 1830 and 1831 (ours): A copy of the 1829 volume is held by the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts. The pictures for each month here are flower tendrils forming a letter, one for each month, building the words SEY GLÜCKLICH (be happy); one of the embossed metal covers is decorated with a rural landscape painted on mother-of-pearl. The Berlin State Library also lists one copy of a calendar printed by H.F. Müller in 1829, however without giving any information on the dimensions, material, collation or design in their catalogue entry (cf. shelf mark 50 PA 291-1829). A copy of the 1830 volume has been sold at auction at Dorotheum in Vienna in 2007, with the binding described to be decorated with mother-of-pearl appliqués, painted in colours, showing Fortuna with a cornucopia and a floral motif. The description of the contents of the Dorotheum copy matches the one in Doris V. Welsh’s Bibliography of miniature books: "12 cut-out hand-painted flowers, pasted on transparent oval-shaped gauze, mounted within a violet cardboard page. Each flower has at bottom center a gilt cut-out letter (…) which together spell out the word "Freundschaft" [friendship]" (cf. ibid. no. 4120, with no information on the binding design and material). Though without any further description, according to a reproduction in the 2025 auction catalogue, another copy of the 1830 volume appears to have been included with the remainders of the famous collection of Dr. Albert Figdor (1843-1927), offered for sale by Vienna auction house im Kinsky (eventually sold en bloc to one single collector before the auction even started; cf. no. 0290-10). Yet another copy of the 1830 volume was included for sure in the collection of Viennese collectors Franz Trau (1842-1905) and his son Franz Trau jr. (1881-1931), according to a 1935 auction catalogue by Gilhofer & Ranschburg. – This miniature book has been designed to serve both as a calendar and (when completely unfolded) as a greeting card (made in the manner of a Wiener Kunstbillet) at the same time, thus a perfect combination to be presented as a New Year’s gift. – Provenance: Contemporary owner’s inscription in ink to last page (imprint): Dr. Evlàb (?). France, through the trade. – Only minor rubbing or imperfections to the enamel decoration. Short crack to rear "hinge" (1cm, in the gauze between last page and cover). Clamshell box rubbed. Else fine, a flawless and beautiful copy. – Cf. Doris Varner Welsh, A bibliography of miniature books, no. 4120. Cf. Gilhofer & Ranschburg (Wien), Sammlung Franz Trau II. Teil. Versteigerung 2. und 3. April 1935, no. 442. Cf. im Kinsky, Sammlung Figdor – Grüße aus dem Biedermeier, no. 0290-10. Cf. Hilda Horváth, Iparművészeti kincsek Magyarországon, no. 41. Cf. Márta Péter, A klasszicizmustól a biedermeierig. Az európai iparművészet stíluskorszakai, no. 3.24.
5800,- EUR Sachgebiete: Almanache, Bibliophilie, Einbände, Kalender, Miniaturbücher Kontakt zum
inkl. 7% USt./incl. 7% VAT
