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Hand-colored etching, signed in pencil E[rnst] Heig[enmoser], ca. 1945. 5.5 x 9.5cm.
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I recently acquired this desolately charming bookplate for Hanns Heeren by Ernst Heig[enmoser]. The bookplate shows a group of bibliophiles looking at books amidst the
ruins of a recently-ended war. The sign in the background says
Ex-Libris Freunde, or
Friends of Ex Libris, the book on the left Samm-lung Heeren (Collection Heeren, whose bookplate it is, and the books on the right have on them
[Walter von] Zur Westen,
[Friedrich] Warnecke, and
[Richard] Braungart.
All three published books illustrating artistic bookplates. Links with
their names take one to online examples of some of these books.
Heigenmoser (1892-1963) was German painter, commercial artist, and industrial designer in
Munich. Heeren (1893-1968) was a German librarian who became a military pilot serving in both World Wars, but more significantly was a
composer of German "volkslieder" (folk music) extolling the virtues of heimat, wandering, the countryside... He was also apparently a collector of bookplates judging by other examples found during Google searches. Here some examples:
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| Karl Blossfeldt, 1920 |
In a case of serendipity, today, two days later I received the journal below featuring an article by Ernst Collin entitled "Der schöne Bucheinband" (The Beautiful Bookbinding). As I am usually single minded I don't even know if I looked to see what other authors were mentioned and/or remembered whose bookplate I ordered. In flipping through the issue also found an article by Hanns Heeren of the bookplate above on "Künstlerische Neujahrswünsche" (Artist's New Years Greetings). Fun!
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| Click to enlarge |
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| Click to enlarge |
To close, the iconic image of the
Holland House library, bombed
out in 1940 during the Blitz. Compare with our first image.
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