A bright green cover and the striking profile of a gaunt woman: in 1924 a carefully designed book was published by Munich's Kurt-Wolff-Verlag: The illustrated edition of "Umbra vitae" was intended to make the poet Georg Heym, who had died twelve years previously, famous.
The 47 included woodcuts by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, to whom the entire book design, including specifications for paper, typeface and type area, can be traced back, also contributed significantly to the success of the work.
The artistic synthesis of the arts, limited to 510 copies, only sold very little at first, but today it is in great demand at auctions.
The next chance of winning a bid is at the spring auction of the book auction house Reiss & Sohn, which takes place from April 26th to 29th in Königstein.
First, 54 objects will be called up, which stand out from the offer of more than 2300 valuable books, graphics and maps and are collected in a special catalogue.
Among them are historically significant works such as the "Manifesto of the Communist Party" by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as a rare first edition, of which only 26 other copies are known (estimate 70,000 euros).
From the Middle Ages to the modern age
Lovers of preciously illuminated parchments can choose from five books of hours: the manuscripts from the late Middle Ages are estimated at between 30,000 and 50,000 euros.
The "Hortus sanitatis" is a highlight for collectors of illustrated printed works, as it is regarded as the prototype of the botanical-medical literature of the Middle Ages.
His more than a thousand woodcuts show representations of plants, animals and minerals.
The second edition of the work, published no later than 1497, is expected to sell for 40,000 euros.
This is followed by a wide range of books from the Middle Ages to the modern age.
Among the manuscripts are the beautiful student registers of Clement du Voizy, who studied law in Marburg in the second quarter of the 18th century.
In addition to entries of important personalities such as the Russian scholar Mikhail Lomonosov, after whom the Moscow University was named, there are also some paintings of coats of arms, watercolors and pencil drawings (3000).
The Modern Literature section offers numerous illustrated books and press releases.
A first edition of Stéphane Mallarmé's "Pages" contains an etching, the only original book illustration created by Auguste Renoir.
The book, published in 1891, together with a handwritten letter from the poet, is said to achieve 8,000 euros.
Finally, old maps, photographs and decorative graphics will be auctioned off.
Three volumes of plates contain more than two hundred ethnological, botanical and zoological drawings that were created during Théophile Lefebvre's research trip to Ethiopia in the mid-19th century (8000).
The colored copper engraving maps of North America (12,000) and Australia (4000) both appeared alone in the last edition of the atlas "Speculum Orbit Terrae" by Cornelis de Jode, published in 1593.