Antique Book-DANCE OF DEATH-WOODCUTS-HOURGLASS-Scharffenberg-Holbein-1796 ed.

‘Der Todten-Tanz, wie derselbe in der weitberuhmten Stadt Basel, als ein spiegel menschlicher beschaffenheit, ganz kunstlich mit lebendigen farben gemahlet, nicht ohne nutzliche verwunderung zu sehen ist.’, published in Basel by the Gebrudern von Mechel, 1796.

Edition with 41 woodcuts in the text, 2 vignettes and 1 cul de lampe, 1 woodcut on the title page.

Condition: Very good and clean.

Size: 12 x 19,5 cm.

Provenance: Ex. collection Wilhelm Künig, a journalist from Bern, with a stamp dated 1883. In addition a blindstamp coat of arms with a deer.

With the woodcuts made in 1576 by Georg Scharffenberg after Hans Holbein. Most woodcuts have the monogram GS (some in reverse), one DR.

Huldreich Frölich was one of the first to describe the Dance of Death paintings of Basel in a text accompanied by many woodcuts fist published in 1588 and 1608, in collaboration with the publisher Henri Petri and then continued by his successor J.J. Decker. After Decker’s death the daughter of Decker married in 1681 Johann Conrad von Mechel. Here the old woodcuts from the Henri Petri workshop re-appeared in the books published by the Mechel family. The ed. were successful and appeared in 1724, 1735, 1740, 1769, 1786 et 1796, and further into the 19th. c.