Lot 12: BROSAMER, Hans (1500-1552). Ein new kunstbüchlein von mancherley schönen Trinckgeschiren zu gut der yebenden jugend der Goldschmit ... an tag gegeben . [Nuremberg: Jobst Gutnecht, ca. 1538].

BROSAMER, Hans (1500-1552). Ein new kunstbüchlein von mancherley schönen Trinckgeschiren zu gut der yebenden jugend der Goldschmit ... an tag gegeben. [Nuremberg: Jobst Gutnecht, ca. 1538].

4° (203 x 150mm). Title with large woodcut (137 x 119mm) and small slip pasted on correcting 'Godschmidt' misprint. 38 full-page woodcuts containing 44 designs. (Skilful retouching to small areas of the fifth and fifteenth design, some light creasemarks and occasional isolated spots.) Modern calf, gilt edges. Provenance: [B. Quaritch (collation note)].

FIRST EDITION OF THIS RARE GERMAN RENAISSANCE COPY-BOOK FOR GOLDSMITHS. Produced to answer the demand for ever more sophisticated and elaborate gold- and silverware, Brosamer's work, which reached a third edition in 1570, forms THE EARLIEST KNOWN SERIES OF DESIGNS MADE EXPRESSLY FOR THE USE OF GOLDSMITHS. The title illustration showing a goldsmith's shop is followed by 44 orfèvrerie designs which comprise: 31 for covered or double goblets, 4 for whistles (on a single page), 4 for brooches (on a single page), 3 richly sculptured wine-flasks and 2 ewers. The first design is printed on the title verso, the remaining cuts on the 37 pages following, leaving the final verso blank. The retouching of the fifth and fifteenth cuts may have been occasioned by the removal of later (?Victorian) strips covering the nude figures incorporated into the pieces. More than one paper stock appears to have been used: a narrow tall crown watermark (Briquet 4982, dated 1538-90) occurs five times over 10ff and an unidentified coat-of-arms once. Hollstein lists five copies of this first edition: Berlin (lacking 2 leaves); Dresden (?destroyed during the war); London (Victoria & Albert Museum) and 2 copies in Paris. A sixth copy is in Nuremberg (Germanische Nationalmuseum, VD 16, B-8391). Hollstein IV. p. 255; Berlin Kat. 899.