Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) - photo 1
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) - photo 2
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) - photo 3

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

Starting price
£ 30 000
Auction dateClassic
09.12.2020 00:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 470088
Lot 164 | Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

Das Römische Carneval. 1789

[GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang von (1749-1832)]. Das Römische Carneval. Berlin: Johann Friedrich Unger, and Weimar and Gotha: Carl Wilhelm Ettinger, 1789.



First edition, preserved in the original printed wrappers, of a rarity in German literature and ‘the most luxurious edition of a single work produced during Goethe’s lifetime’ (Unseld, p.80). With only 318 copies printed, the edition sold out very quickly and was immediately considered rare. When Goethe gave the copy from his own library to replace a stolen copy from the library at Wilhelmshöhe, he was unable to source another, even finding himself outbid on a copy offered at auction. The text attempts an objective description of the Roman carnivals Goethe attended in 1787 and 1788, and the temporary dissolution of normal behaviour in which ‘the difference between the social orders seems to be abolished’. It is illustrated by 20 hand-coloured engraved plates of carnival scenes after sketches by Johann Georg Schütz, with whom Goethe lived in Rome. Hagen 193; Lipperheide Sn 15; Rümann 353; Siegfried Unseld. Goethe and His Publishers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019.



Quarto (276 x 215mm). Title with engraved vignette of 3 masks surrounding a sculpted vase by H. Lips, 20 hand-coloured engraved plates after Johann Georg Schütz, errata leaf, bound without the rare slip offering instructions to the bookbinder (title with short marginal tear neatly repaired, A3-4 lightly stained at upper corner, a few faint spots). Original printed wrappers depicting ornate frame, the upper wrapper titled to centre (lightly rubbed and stained, evidence of former tape repairs to joints, slight loss of wrapper to spine); mostly untrimmed; housed in modern half morocco box. Provenance: unidentified stamp and manuscript note on upper wrapper.

Place of origin:Germany
Category:Book
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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09.12.2020 – 09.12.2020
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