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Tsingtau - Großes Fotoalbum (China) um 1910, deutsche Matrosen-Artillerie, Marine, 118 Fotos

Fotos Tsingtau (Deutsche Kolonie Kiautschou), Lackalbum --- Vollständiges, beeindruckendes Fotoalbum eines deutschen Soldaten in einer Matrosenartillerie-Kompanie in Tsingtau; mit Datierungen von 1909 bis 1911. Der Albumhalter (Wilhelm Schütterle in Kehl) ist später als Mitglied der "Vereinigung ehemaliger Tsingtauer" nachweisbar. Fest auf die 25 Papp-Albumblätter montiert sind insgesamt 118 Fotos (ohne Fehlstellen, es wurden also keine Bilder entfernt), davon 24 großformatige (ca. 17,3 x 22,5 cm) und 94 kleinerformatige (ca. 10,5 x 15 cm). Auf vier Fotos sind handgeschriebene Schilder zu erkennen: "Ein Mittagsstündchen in den Tropen 1908-11 noch 220 Tage"; "Erste Ostern im Fernen Osten 1909"; "Alte Knochen beim letzten Ostern in Tsingtau 08-11" und "Letzte Ostern in Tsingtau 1910." --- Motive sind sehr häufig die deutschen Soldaten in ihrer weißen Matrosen-Uniform (Mützen mit Aufschrift "Matrosenartillerie"), aber auch die einheimische Bevölkerung (Zivil und Soldaten). Mehrere Aufnahmen stammen aus dem Gebirge, einige wurden auf einem Schiff gemacht. Es gibt auch Außenaufnahmen von Schiffen, einige Fotos von Häusern (ein Haus mit Firmen-Aufschrift der Tsingtauer Schlosserei Schierwagen & Scheithauer), einem gestrandeten Kleinwal, Schießübungen etc. --- Sehr beeindruckende Motive; scharfe Fotos. Tsingtau um 1910 Originales Lackalbum (27 x 35,5 x 5,5 cm) mit Deckelillustration (Drache) und Lederrücken. Umfang: 25 Papp-Albumblätter mit ins. 118 montierten Fotos. Mit Besitzerstempel des Soldaten Wilhelm Schütterle aus Kehl. --- Zustand: Fotos in gutem bis sehr gutem Zustand. Die Albumblätter teils fleckig, die Deckel mit oberflächlichen Rissen, der Rücken ist berieben.

21.07.2026 - 17:01

1800,- EUR

Antiquariat Thomas Mertens

NOVELLI, Francesco. Disegni del Mantegna.

Venice: 1796-1799 circa. Folio (386 x 277 mm.), engraved title-page with the bust of Mantegna on a pedestral, engraved dedication printed on two leaves anf fourty-four engraved plates. Contemporary half calf, gilt spine in compartments with red morocco lettering-piece. Spine very lightly rubbed, overall very fine. ‘A rare suite of prints reproducing drawings of putti playing of fighting, all'antica heads, and studies of the Virgin and Child, once attributed to Andrea Mantegna, now recognized as works of Marco Zoppo (1432/3-1478). The prints are dedicated by the printmaker Francesco Novelli to Giambattista de Rubeis, and all but the last two reproduce drawings executed in pen and ink and wash on vellum in an album that De Rubeis had given to the printmaker's father, the Venetian painter Pietro Antonio Novelli. The album passed subsequently through the hands of Samuel Woodburn, Sir Alexander Barker, Baron Mayer de Rothschild, to Archibald Philip Primrose, fifth Earl of Rosebery (1847-1929), who in 1920 presented it to the British Museum. The function of the album has been much debated, with some reading ita s apattern book, others as an adjunct to a literary text – perhaps Petrarch's De viris illustribus – or as a luxury picture book commissioned by a patron in Venice or Padua; its date, too, is uncertain, with arguments ranging from the mid-1460s. The elusive meaning of some of the drawings and discret homosexual imagery in others “suggest a commission where the patron had a hand in providing some of the subject matter, the significance of which may have been understood only by a small circle of friends” (Chapman, Padua in the 1450s: Marco Zoppo and his contemporaries, exhibition catalogue by Hugo Chapman, British Museum, Departments of Prints and Drawings, London 1998, pp.38, 40) […] In the dedicatory letter, Novelli recounts the discovery of the album in 1765 in Padua by Giambattista de Rubeis (1743-1819), a painter and a dilettante from Udine. He tells us that various experts of Padua, recognizing ita s an important work of art derived from Squarcione, decided that the drawings must be by his most illustrious pupil, Mantegna, basing this attribution on a resenblance, in their opinion, to the so-called Tarocchi del Mantegna. In the letter, Novelli attemps to support the attribution, by finding affinities with the Triumphs of Caesar and other authentic works of Mantegna. The album consists of twenty-six vellum leaves, of which twenty-four are drawn on both sides and two are blank on one side, so the total number of drawings is fifty. Novelli's plan was to engrave all fifty drawings and issue his prints serialy, in group of eight, to subrcribers. […] In a letter of December 1796 to Abate Mauro Boni, Novelli writes that he had become apprehnsive about publishing prints of two drawings, because he considered them licentious, and thus likely to lose his subscribers, as incorrect in drawing. We learn from another letter that Francesco Novelli had acquired from Abate Pietro Bini, sometime before 27 May 1796, a double-sided drawing (on paper) showing eight studies of the Virgin and Child in a variety of pose. Novelli belived this sheet to be also by Mantegna – despite receiving from the Venetian connosseur Giovanni Maria Sasso the correct attribution to Zoppo – and he etched both sides as substitute for two rami licenziosi recording the different provenance directly on the plates: Il disegno fu regalato all'incisore dall'Egregio Pittore Sigr. Abre. Pietro Bini. […] The project was brought to a close in 1799, […]. In an undated Avviso [in our copy pasted onto the front pastedawn], Novelli explained that the work would terminate with forty-four prints, however the two prints of the Virgin anc Child (each with four studies) would be counted as eight, thereby fulfilling his promise to supply 50 disegni originali di Andrea Mantegna. The majority of surviving copies are comprised of forty-seven or forty-eight prints: the title-print (often supplied in two versions, one with and the other without lettering); two leaves of engraved dedication and forty-four numbered plates.' (Robin Halwas)

Sachgebiete: Kupferstich, Handzeichnungen, Illustrierte Bücher, Renaissance

21.07.2026 - 17:00

9000,- EUR

Meda Riquier Rare Books LTD

6 große farbige erotische Malereien auf Seide montiert in ein Leporello - China Mongolia Erotik Original-Malerei

6 farbige im unteren Rand gestempelte Malereien jeweils ca. 36,5 x 27 cm. Montiert in ein Leporello aus der Zeit um 1900, Karton mit Goldbrokat bezogen ca. 33 x 43,5 cm. Insgesamt hat das Leporello eine Länge von ca. 2,60 m und eine Höhe von 43,5 cm. Sehr schöner Zustand Leporello with gold brocade cloth covers (260 x 43,5 cm), with 6 ink and watercolour erotic scenes on silk (each leaf app. 36,5 x 27 cm). China, Mongolia n.d. c. 1900. An erotic hand painted color leporello, 6 individual scenes, each sheet is stamped in the lower corner. Of unusual size and beauty. Wonderful condition.

21.07.2026 - 16:58

1800,- EUR

Antiquariat Thomas Mertens

MORE, Sir Thomas; DESIDERIUS ERASMUS. MORE, Sir Thomas. De optimo reip. statu deque nova insula Utopia ... Epigrammata [with:] DESIDERIUS ERASMUS. Epigrammata.

Basel: Johann Froben, March 1518 Quarto (213 x 155 mm.), three parts in one volume. Roman, Greek and 'Utopian' types. Woodcut historiated border to title of each part and to preface, the first by Ambrosius Holbein, the others by Hans Holbein, full- page woodcut of Utopia and half-page woodcut of Clement, Hythlodaye, More and Gillies, by Ambrosius Holbein, a different woodcut printer's device at end of each part, woodcut historiated initials by A. and H. Holbein. A very fine copy in nineteenth century red crushed morocco by Francis Bedford, spine gilt in compartments with gilt title, gilt edges; from the library of Cardiff Castle (ex libris) and Livio Ambrogio (ex libris). The important third edition of Utopia with the author's revisions, including the first edition of More's Epigrammata, not present in the first 1516 Louvain publication by Peter Gillies and the following Parisian reprint by Gourmont in 1517. This early edition of More's Epigrammata includes verses that were removed from following printings, particularly those pertaining to Germain de Brie (c. 1490-1538). This is the first edition printed by Johann Froben, which was followed by an identical issue in November/December of the same year. Froben's editions have been described as ‘'the most complete and most correct published in [More's] lifetime'' (Fairfax Murray, p. 494). This revised impression was arranged by Erasmus and it also contains his own Epigrammata, originally printed in Paris in 1506 in conjunction with the fourth edition of his Adagia. The title page is contained within a woodcut border showing Lucretia and Sextus Tarquinius, with additional separate title pages for each of the three works, as well as printers' devices. These works are often found separate, however it is rare to find them together as published. Utopia's architectural border is populated by Cherubs and signed by Hans Holbein. More's Epigrammata is set within a border also signed by Hans Holbein, the lower part occupied by scenes of the life of Gaius Mucius Cordus. The border for Erasmus' Epigrammata depicts St. John the Baptist and Salome. Utopia opens with a full-page woodcut map of the island, executed by Ambrose Holbein, depicting Raphael Hythlodaeus on the bottom left corner pointing towards it while speaking to More and Gillis. The opposite leaf contains the Utopian alphabet and several verses. An additional woodcut vignette is included at the beginning of the first section, showing Clement, More, Hythlodaeus, and Gillies. More's Utopia is presented as a imaginary dialogue between the author and the fictitious traveller Raphael Hythlodaeus, allegedly part of Amerigo Vespucci's crew. The first part is reserved for Hythlodaeus' critiques of European societies, particularly their greed, corruption, and inequality, blaming private property, harsh punishments, and class oppression. Conversely, the second part describes the island of Utopia that houses a society organized around communal property and rational governance. Utopians work only six hours a day, share resources, are not bound by materialism and practice religious tolerance. Their simple laws and elected leadership ensure fairness, while war and overpopulation are avoided, and slavery serves as punishment for criminals and prisoners of war. While on the surface Utopia appears idyllic, the work is infused with irony, leaving the reader to question whether such a society is attainable or a critique of human nature. "Utopia is not, as often imagined, More's ideal state: it exemplifies only the virtues of wisdom, fortitude, temperance and justice. It reflects the moral poverty of the states which More knew […] But an ideal state is what it has come to mean […] Utopia has become a fairy-tale. More, who was knighted in 1521, was later Speaker of the House of Commons, High Steward of Cambridge University, and Lord Chancellor. In 1535 he was executed for high treason. He is a saint to the Catholic, and a predecessor of Marx to the Communist. His manifesto is and will be required reading for both, and for all shades of opinion between.'' (PMM p.28).

Sachgebiete: Einbände, Humanismus, Niederlande , Renaissance , Schweiz

21.07.2026 - 16:58

50000,- EUR

Meda Riquier Rare Books LTD

[LEONARDO DA VINCI]. [Istrumento della donazione di dodici volumi di Leonardo da Vinci fatta alla Biblioteca Ambrosiana di Milano da Galeazzo Arconati a mezzo del suo procuratore Cristoforo Sola in data 21 gennaio 1637].

N.p. [Milan?]: n.d. [first quarter of the XVIII century]. Quarto (310×211mm). [6] leaves, the last blank. Historiated woodcut initial on the first page. A fine copy with wide margins and untrimmed edges bound in nineteenth-century brown morocco. Very rare printed edition of two notarial deeds concerning the donation of Leonardo da Vinci's manuscripts to the Biblioteca Ambrosiana of Milan. The documents include a description of all twelve notebooks, featuring the first ever mention of Leonardo's Codex Atlanticus, and a transcription of the plaque placed inside the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, to commemorate the donor, Galeazzo Arconati. Only nine copies of the four known issues are present in public libraries, which only one in the US (Washington, National Gallery of Art Library). According to Gustavo Uzielli, first to discover and publish the text of the Instrumento, in 1884, the present copy is a third edition, likely dating from the time of Giuseppe Antonio Arconati Visconti (1698–1763), a great-grandson of Galeazzo. Based on paper quality, we also believe that it dates to the early XVIII century. When Leonardo died in Amboise in 1519, his friend and pupil Francesco Melzi inherited all the notes and drawings his teacher had produced throughout his entire life. Melzi took them to his villa in Vaprio d'Adda, near Milan, where at his death in 1570 they passed to his son, Orazio Melzi. Orazio took so little interest in his inheritance that he even allowed several manuscripts to be stolen by the family's tutor. After the manuscripts were recovered, Pompeo Leoni (1537–1608), a sculptor at the Spanish court, purchased the entire collection and took it to Madrid. It was there that Leoni compiled the Codex Atlanticus by arbitrarily mounting 1,750 fragments of Leonardo's notebooks onto a large book (65×44cm), "making no attempt to classify them according to their content or date" (Pedretti, pp. 7–8). Leoni's heirs then dispersed Leonardo's manuscripts in different directions: some remained in Madrid, some were sent to England (now the British Museum's Codex Arundel and the drawings in Windsor Castle), and some, including the Codex Atlanticus, were sold to Count Galeazzo Arconati (1580–1649). Arconati, patron of the arts and an art collector, was also the cousin of Cardinal Federico Borromeo, founder of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana. Our document maintains that the king of England offered Arconati 1,000 golden coins for the Codex Atlanticus, but he refused the offer and instead donated it, along with all the other manuscripts, to the Ambrosiana, one of Italy's earliest public libraries. The first deed was drafted on 13 January 1637, and the second one, with the same provisions, was drafted a week later on 21 January, the day of the public donation ceremony. These were originally intended for the attendees of the ceremony. The twelve volumes remained in Milan until 1796, when Napoleon ordered they to be brought to Paris. The Codex Atlanticus only was returned to the Ambrosiana after the Congress of Vienna in 1815, while the rest of the collection has remained in the Institut de France ever since.

Sachgebiete: Geschichte, Italien, Renaissance

21.07.2026 - 16:55

16000,- EUR

Meda Riquier Rare Books LTD

Dohna, Siegmar zu. Kurfürstliche Schlösser in der Mark Brandenburg. 3 Bände mit großen Original-Fotografien - Berlin, Duncker 1890-93

Hardcover. Zustand: Gut bis sehr gut. Dohna, Siegmar zu. Kurfürstliche Schlösser in der Mark Brandenburg. 3 Bände mit großen Original-Fotografien Berlin, Duncker 1890-93 197; 205; 162 Seiten. Mit teils doppelblattgroßen teilweise kolorierten Karten und Plänen, 33 Tafeln in Lithographie und Lichtdruck, 3 doppelblattgr. Stammtafeln und 12 Orig.-Fotografien (Albuminabzüge). Original-Leinen (minimal berieben) und Original-Leinenkassette 27 x 19,5 cm. Seltene Ausgabe mit den Beschreibungen der Schlösser in und um Berlin. Teil 1 behandelt detailliert Grunewald, Oranienburg, Schönhausen, Teil 2 Köpenick und Königs-Wusterhausen; der später erschienene 3. Teil ist ganz dem Berliner Stadtschloss gewidmet. Er enthält zudem 12 Originalfotografien vom Äußeren und Inneren des Gebäudes.- Gutes Exemplar. Extrem selten mit dem 3.Band.

21.07.2026 - 16:54

1600,- EUR

Antiquariat Thomas Mertens

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI. Fiorecti di Sancto Francesco.

Florence: [Bartolommeo di Libri] for L.R., 26 May 1489. Quarto (175 x 122 mm.), [128] leaves, the first leaf, blank except for the title, is an old facsimile on ancient paper; Gothic type 3:114G, 27 lines per page with L.R. device at the end. A few spots, short upper margin, but a very fine copy bound with a contemporary vellum manuscript page, spine renewed, manuscript title on spine, from the library of the famous British explorer Apsley Cherry Garrard (1886-1959). Modern half morocco box. Exceedingly rare edition of Saint Francis's Fioretti. “Little Flowers of Francis of Assisi is the name given to a classic collection of popular legends about the life of St. Francis of Assisi and his early companions as they appeared to the Italian people at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Such a work, […], can hardly be said to have one author; it is the product rather of gradual growth and must, […], remain in a certain sense anonymous, because it is national. There has been some doubt as to whether the Fioretti were written in Italian in the first instance, […], or were translated from a Latin original […]. The latter seems altogether more probable, and modern critics generally believe that a larger Latin collection of legends, which has come down to us under the name of the Actus B. Francisci et Sociorum Ejus, represents an approximation to the text now lost of the original Floretum, of which the Fioretti is a translation. A striking difference is noticeable between the earlier chapters of the Fioretti, which refer to St. Francis and his companions, and the later ones which deal with the friars in the province of the March of Ancona. The first half of the collection is, no doubt, merely a new form given to traditions that go back to the early days of the order; the other is believed to be substantially the work of a certain Fra Ugolino da Monte Giorgio of the noble family of Brunforte, who, at the time of his death in 1348, was provincial of the Friars Minor in the March. Living as he did a century after the death of St. Francis, Ugolino was dependent on hearsay for much of his information; part of it he is said to have learned from Fra Giacomo da Massa who had been well known and esteemed by the companions of the saint, and who had lived on terms of intimacy with Fra Leone, his confessor and secretary. Whatever may have been the sources from which Ugolino derived his materials, the fifty-three chapters which constitute the Latin work in question seem to have been written before 1328. The four appendixes on the Stigmata of St. Francis, the life of Fra Ginepro, and the life and the sayings of the Fra Egidio, which occupy nearly one half of the printed text of the Fioretti, as we now have it, form no part of the original collection and were probably added by later compilers. Unfortunately the name of the fourteenth-century Franciscan friar who translated into Italian fifty-three of the seventy-six chapters found in the Actus B. Francisci and in translating immortalized them as the Fioretti, remains unknown. The attribution of this work to Giovanni di San Lorenzo rests wholly upon conjecture. It has been surmised that the translator was a Florentine. However this may be, the vernacular version is written in the most limpid Tuscan and is reckoned among the masterpieces of Italian literature. The Fioretti have been described as “the most exquisite expression of the religious life of the Middle Ages.” That perhaps which gives these legends such a peculiar charm, is what may be called their atmosphere; they breathe all the delicious fragrance of the early Franciscan spirit. Nowhere can there be found a more childlike faith, a livelier sense of the supernatural, or a simpler literalness in the following Christ than in the pages of the Fioretti, which more than any other work transport us to the scenes amid which St. Francis and his first followers live, and enable us to see them as they saw themselves. These legends, moreover, bear precious witness to the vitality and enthusiasm with which the memory of the life and teaching of the Poverello was preserved […]. In Italy the Fioretti have always enjoyed an extraordinary popularity; indeed, this liber aureus is said to have been more widely read there than any book, not excepting even the Bible or the Divine Comedy. Certain it is that the Fioretti have exercised an immense influence forming in the popular conception of St. Francis and his companions. The earliest known manuscript of the Fioretti, now preserved at Berlin , is dated 1390; the work was first printed at Vicenza in 1476.” (Catholic Encyclopedia on-line) After that first appearance, the Fioretti were reprinted other eleven times during the fifteenth-century; all these editions, including ours which is the first printed in Florence, are extremely rare and most of the surviving copies are imperfect.

Sachgebiete: Einbände, Humanismus, Inkunabeln, Italien, Religionsgeschichte

21.07.2026 - 16:49

39000,- EUR

Meda Riquier Rare Books LTD

[DE BRY, Johann Theodor & Johann Israel]. I. Acta Mechmeti I Saracenorum principis

[Frankfurt]: per Io. Theodorum & Io. Israelem de Bry fratres, 1597. Quarto (199×146mm), 2 parts in one volume. I: [4] leaves, pages 1–58, [1] leaf; II: pages 59–96, [3] leaves. Engraved title-page within architectural border, the Prophet Muhammad and a Byzantine emperor at the sides. Twenty- six engravings, various historiated initials and typographical ornaments throughout. Contemporary stiff vellum binding, remounted. Rather browned, especially in quires D and N, some minor spotting and foxing, else a very good copy. First edition of "the first printed Western book to illustrate the life of the Prophet Muhammad" (Ilg, p. 241). The book's editors, the brothers Johann Theodor and Johann Israel de Bry, worked in Frankfurt and are best known for their illustrated editions of travel accounts from Asia and the Americas. Although the author of this volume is anonymous, they are most likely to be identified as Jean-Jacques Boissard, a scholar and humanist who frequently collaborated with the de Bry printing house until his death in 1602. Boissard had previously written a collection of biographies of Ottoman sultans, printed in 1596, and it seems apparent that the Acta Mechmeti could be a complement to this earlier work. Boissard also provided the drawings on which the engravings for his editions were based; therefore, it is probable that the twenty-six illustrations in this volume were also based on his drawings. The first part of the book contains not only a biography of Muhammad, but also a presentation of the basic principles of Islam, a brief history of the Arabic caliphates up to the year 1300, a summary of the customs of the Armenians and the Georgians, and finally a history of the Ottoman sultans from 1300 to 1595. The second part of the book is a collection of prophecies about the decline of the Ottoman Empire that were popularly attributed to the Byzantine emperor Leo VI. "The nine engravings that accompany the life of Muhammad — the only section of the Acts to receive illustrations — give the textual arguments a dramatic turn: the engravings always represent the most spectacular, climactic moment of each of the narrated episodes. Muhammad is, for example, caught groping his mistress or tumbling down due to an epileptic fit. Certainly, these engravings illustrate only the most salient points of the Christian criticism of Muhammad and of his doctrines. Hence, his ignoble family origin, his lecherous behavior, and the fact that he was a trickster who cheated people by fabricating false miracles were highlighted. However, the illustrator did not give Muhammad the aspect of a demoniac, deformed, or harmed creature, as frequently had been the case in Western art. Instead, the characters who appear in these engravings have been treated in a matter-of- fact way: the illustrator considered the costume figures published in 1567 by the French royal geographer Nicolas de Nicolay in his travel report from the Ottoman Empire (Navigations et peregrinations orientales) as the best available approximations of the true appearance of the historic Muhammad and his contemporaries. The young Muhammad is therefore — due to a misunderstanding of the prototypal image — dressed in the hood and cloak of de Nicolay's Turkish girl" (ibid., p. 252). "The decision to represent Muhammad and his contemporaries as if they were sixteenth-century Ottomans may seem anachronistic today. The sixteenth-century reader of the Acts, however, must have had a quite different point of view. During the first half of the century, the image of the Turk had become instrumental in the polemics between the Protestant and Catholic denominations. Innumerable Reformation broadsheets had depicted a Turk as personification of heresy and false doctrine next to either the pope or a Lutheran preacher. By conferring to his Muhammad the appearance of an Ottoman, the illustrator of the Acts used this established iconographic tradition to characterize Muhammad even more effectively as a pseudo- prophet. Further, the curious "ottomanization" of Muhammad was a result of the opinion, expressed not only in the Acts, that Muhammad was succeeded as "rex" by a series of Saracen rulers and finally by the Ottoman sultans. The Ottomans were therefore widely considered to be Muhammad's heirs, Islam became the "Turkish religion" and the content of the Qur'an the "Turkish law" (Ilg, p. 258). The second part of the volume contains the Vaticinium Severi et Leonis imperatorum ("The Prophecy of the Emperors Leo and Severus"). It is a prophetic forgery that was attributed to Leo VI the Wise, emperor of Byzantium from 886 to 912, and to the Roman emperor Antoninus Severus, better known as Caracalla (211–217). It consists of sixteen poems, each paired with an allegorical illustration and followed by an explanation, which foretell the imminent fall of the Ottoman rule. The Oracles of Leo the Wise were widely read throughout the late Middle Ages and early modern period, and they were routinely reinterpreted in light of the current political context. Their first printed edition appeared in Brescia in 1596, containing Latin and Italian text; the present edition reprints the Latin text of this first edition and almost exactly replicates its sixteen engravings.

Sachgebiete: Alte Drucke 16. Jahrhundert , Arabistik, Deutschland, Islam, Religionsgeschichte

21.07.2026 - 16:46

11000,- EUR

Meda Riquier Rare Books LTD