Niels Slange and Hans Gram | Den Stormaegtigste Konges Christian den Fierdes, 1749, fine Danish binding - photo 1
Niels Slange and Hans Gram | Den Stormaegtigste Konges Christian den Fierdes, 1749, fine Danish binding - photo 2

Niels Slange and Hans Gram | Den Stormaegtigste Konges Christian den Fierdes, 1749, fine Danish binding

Lot 80
28.11.2023 14:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 3 048
AuctioneerSotheby´s
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1076603
Lot 80 | Niels Slange and Hans Gram | Den Stormaegtigste Konges Christian den Fierdes, 1749, fine Danish binding
Estimate value
£ 3 000 – 5 000
Niels Slange and Hans Gram

Den Stormaegtigste Konges Christian den Fierdes, Konges til Danmark og Norge… Histoire. Copenhagen: Hans Kongel, 1749

FIRST EDITION, folio (402 x 270 mm.), 2 engraved portraits, SPLENDID EARLY 19TH CENTURY RED STRAIGHT-GRAIN MOROCCO, VERY INTRICATELY GILT, BY AN APPRENTICE IN THE WORKSHOP OF DANISH MASTER BOOKBINDER NIELS ANTHON, covers with border of pointillé tulips, sunbursts at corners, inner strapwork frame with round and oval compartments on the sides and heart-shaped compartments at corners, each of these containing either a floral ornament or a sunburst, central panel tooled with rows of strapwork cruciform compartments filled with massed botanical tools, including pomegranates and acanthus leaves, the alternating compartments with a tall stem of blossoms emerging from a vase, raised bands, spine compartments with strapwork ovals containing stylized floral drawer-handle tools, gilt lettering, turn-ins with gilt lattice formed by star tools, blue glazed endpapers, flyleaves watermarked “Whatman 1819”, gilt edges, first dozen leaves, portraits, and one other bifolium with overall light browning, a bit of wear to corners

This is a superb example of the binding style of Copenhagen craftsman Niels Anthon, who apparently used copies of this definitive biography of the great Danish king Christian IV as the work to be bound as a sort of demonstration piece or “final examination” for his apprentices. (The Library of Congress and the Wormsley Library have similarly bound copies of this work, and another is illustrated in Nielson and Berg’s Danmarks Bogbindere.)

Son of master bookbinder Peter Anthon, the younger Anthon (1761-1829) apparently devised this intricate design and selected this massive (and thus very challenging) work to test the abilities of his apprentices, presumably before they could be trusted to produced bindings for clients of the workshop. Based on the watermarks of the flyleaves, this binding was produced c.1820.
Auction house category:Prints, graphics, books
Address of auction Sotheby´s
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28.11.2023
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