Herausgegeben von der Mechitharisten-Congregation.
Wien: Mechitharisten Buchdruckerei, 1858.
Atlas quarto (the pages 440 x 310 mm). Engraved frontispiece, wood-engraved pictorial title and 19 wood engravings, all full-page. Contemporary Viennese binding, overall 460 x 350 mm, by August Habenicht (gilt cartouche on lower front dentelle), elaborately chamfered, embossed, painted and polished calf over wooden boards, painted and gilt central recessed panel on each side, surrounded by a wide border of 12 carved and painted coats-of-arms, large metal corner pieces, spine in six compartments with carved floral design, raised bands reinforced in metal, two clasps, gilt, gauffered and painted edges, green morocco dentelles, green and gold brocade doublures patterned with red-bordered lozenges containing the imperial eagle in black on gold and the imperial crown in gold on green; contemporary blindstamped pigskin case, with large recessed circular central panel with the imperial arms, modeled in papier maché and painted in gold and colors, four inset latches on sides, lined in purple lozenged brocade (the latches broken or partially missing, significant wear to sides, lining and bottom of case). Printed on fine heavy wove with xylographic engraved borders on every text page and xylographic engraved titles and tailpieces. Collates [1 l.], 1 l. (half-title), 1 l. (frontispiece), 1 l. (title), 1 l. (pictorial title), 2 ll. (prefatory poems), 1 l. (wood engraving opening the division "Oestereich" [sic]), pp. 1-244, [1 l.], plus 18 further ll. wood engravings opening the additional divisions of the text arranged by provinces of the Empire, the engravings printed versos only (recto for pictorial title) on chine laid onto heavy wove stock and tissue-guarded. The book and binding are in overall fine condition, the doublures swelling slightly and with the pasted paper bookplate of Cornelius J. Hauck, the bright, unfoxed text pages on heavy wove having an insignificant number of negligible scattered smudges. The imposing central papier maché medallion on the top of the case is entirely undamaged. The case itself shows scuffs, scrapes and wear, more so on the sides than the top, seriously so on the bottom and the inner lining, and requires restoration of the four inset latches.
This collection was lavishly published by the Viennese Mechitharist Congregation (of the Carpathian order of Armenian monks from St. Lazarus in Venice) on their renowned press to contribute to the ongoing building campaign of the Votivkirche in Vienna. The 231 poems commemorate the decennial of the ascension of Franz Josef I, Habsburg Emperor of Austria-Hungary from 1848 to 1916. The unifying theme of these Vaterlandsliebe is homage and honor for Gott, Volk, Kaiser und Vaterland. This volume, nevertheless, has an importance in bibliographic and cultural history far beyond its guise as an imperial Feierschrift. The compiler, Upper Austrian writer Karl Adam Kaltenbrunner (1804-1867), undertook to gather poems spanning the breadth of the Habsburg Empire, and settled upon examples in 15 languages and 16 additional dialects within those languages, to set out the great diversity of its vernacular poetry, the original language of the people, idyllic and rich in local color. In particular, Kaltenbrunner and his Upper Austrian contemporary Franz Stelzhamer, who each contributed two poems, one apiece in oberösterreichische (Upper Austrian) dialect, were proselytes of obderenns´scher Volksmundart (folk vernacular from the region west of the river Enns), and Ignaz Franz Castelli, who is also represented by two poems, one in niederösterreichischer (Lower Austrian) dialect, was a champion of vernacular literature during the period of the Austrian Biedermeier, his 1847 Wörterbuch der Mundart in Österreich unter der Enns ("Dictionary of Vernacular in Austria east of the river Enns") furthering the ongoing philological discussion on dialect. The collection was meant as "a linguistic and typographic mirror of present-day Austria" (see A. Mayer, Wiens Buchdruckergeschichte II, 187) and indeed was divided into sections of poems representing 19 provinces of the Empire, each section beginning with a wood engraving illustrating a scene from the local daily life. The illustrations are all after Peter Johann Nepomuk Geiger (1805-1880), Austrian artist and book illustrator. The pictorial title and the 19 engravings representing the provinces were elaborately engraved on wood in a dense and precise style resembling steel engraving, mostly by Adolphe-François Pannemaker and Eduard Kretzschmar. (The elaborate frontispiece copperplate engraving is by Josef Axmann.) The engravings, all full-page, are brightly printed on laid chine with clarity and contrast. A detailed list of the poems and engravings is available upon request.
We have located only nine other copies of the Kaiser-Album in institutional collections: three in Austrian national libraries, one each in England (British Library), Italy and Canada, three in the United States (Widener, Newberry and T.C. Wilson Libraries). No other copy is reported to have appeared at public sale in the past 30 years.
Provenance: Cornelius J. Hauck (1893-1967), who, starting in the 1930's,
amassed a library rich in singular bindings and historical material. He
bequeathed his collection to his native City of Cincinnati, where it was
deposited at the Cincinnati Museum Center and slumbered for almost 40 years.
The entire collection was deaccessioned at an epochal sale at Christie's
in 2006.
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Price: $9,750
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