In 1920, Oskar Schlemmer was faced with a difficult decision: should he devote himself entirely to painting, continue working as a stage designer, or accept Walter Gropius' call to Weimar?
"All in all, Sumatratrara: the question of existence remains.
.
.”, with these words Schlemmer concludes a letter to his friend Josef Hoffmann, in which he considers the options.
A previously unpublished series of letters offers new insights into this early phase of the life of the later Bauhaus master.
The collection of 39 letters and 7 postcards from the years 1916 to 1922, with an estimate of 120,000 euros, is the top lot of the autograph auction on April 5th at JA Stargardt in Berlin.
When a good 580 autographs by famous personalities from literature, science, art, film and theatre, history and music are up for auction there, a menu card from 1956 is one of the special rarities.
Mao Tse-tung, among others, personally signed the sheet with the menu for a Beijing state banquet in honor of Pakistani Prime Minister Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy.
Swallow's nest soup and shark fin were served (estimate 30,000 euros).
Also offered in the history section is a manuscript by Karl Marx for an article that appeared in the Volksstaat on March 29, 1871.
The sheet is estimated at 80,000 euros.
A letter from George Frideric Handel dated August 21, 1744 is also marked with this sum, one of the composer's last six privately owned letters.
Among the literary autographs, the collection of 83 letters by Malwida von Meysenbug stands out.
The letters from the years 1876 to 1902 give an insight into the life of a politically interested, well-connected woman.
She was maid of honor at the wedding of Richard and Cosima Wagner and met Friedrich Nietzsche in Bayreuth.
She reports to her nephew Carl, to whom the letters are addressed, about a visit by Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche: She “took a trip .
.
.
to visit the places where her poor brother has been for the last few years.
She is a severely tested being.
.
.” (16,000).
A letter from Karl May to an admirer is amusing.
In it he claims to have "really undertaken all these great journeys that I told you about".
As usual, he signed “Dr.
Karl May” without ever having received a doctorate or having attended a university (2500).
A bundle of 129 pages with partly unused notes on Franz Kafka's biography by Max Brod promises new insights for Kafka research (16,000).
Letters from the hand of Galileo Galilei are extremely rare in the trade, since from 1638 onwards he was only able to dictate letters due to his blindness.
A letter written in his name is dated February 24, 1639, in which he repeatedly asked about a wine delivery promised by the Grand Duke.
Apparently the scholar enjoyed pleasant prison conditions in his country house near Florence, as he was under house arrest after the Inquisition process of 1633 (5000).