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an old book with a drawing of a woman and a man
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816 - Paper cuttings Silhouette album containing 126 cut-out portr…
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Estimate €500 - €750
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Description
Paper cuttings Silhouette album containing 126 cut-out portraits, together with portraits in ink (2), drawings (4), scraped-art prints (8), colour engravings (2) and copperplate engravings (14). Mounted on 69 leaves. The cut-out portraits (mostly labelled in handwriting) measure approx. 4 x 3.5 to 10 x 7 cm. In a contemporary paper binding (heavily scuffed, spine with missing sections, some leaves loose). Quarto-8°. Late 18th century. Among those depicted are Lavater, Crusius, Wittgenstein, Spangenberg, Schulenburg, Countess Reuss, Hardenberg, Wollin, Lykar, Schoenberg, Feder, Hohenthal, Vitzum, Lippe, Count Brühl, Lykar and many others. The album was created during the heyday of the silhouette fashion, which is inextricably linked to the name of Johann Caspar Lavater (1741–1801). With his *Physiognomic Fragments for the Promotion of Knowledge of Human Nature and Love of Mankind*, published in four volumes between 1775 and 1778, the Zurich theologian made the silhouette – the true-to-contour, side-profile depiction of a face – into the central medium of a new, pseudoscientific interpretative practice: the silhouette was regarded as an ‘immediate imprint of nature’ and thus as an objective instrument for the study of human character. Lavater’s own collection of physiognomic silhouettes grew to over 22,000 sheets and is now housed in the Austrian National Library. The enormous popularity of his work, to which Goethe, Merck, Chodowiecki and Füssli, amongst others, contributed, meant that the art of silhouette rapidly evolved from a physiognomic method of study into a widespread social practice of commemorating portraits. The fact that Lavater himself features amongst those depicted in this album directly points to this intellectual-historical origin of the collection. Silhouette and shadow-drawing albums of this kind were, in the late 18th century, an integral part of the culture of friendship and remembrance, particularly in academic and courtly circles: students, scholars and members of the nobility compiled collections of profile portraits of their acquaintances, teachers and peers during their years of study or travel – comparable to the well-known ‘Friendship Album’ compiled in Göttingen around 1784–1786 by the Hungarian nobleman Gregorius Franz von Berzeviczy. The names featured in this album – Schulenburg, Countess Reuß, Hardenberg, Hohenthal, Vitzum (von Eckstädt) and Count Brühl – all hail from the Central German, primarily Saxon-Thuringian, high nobility and suggest a similar context of origin: a personal album of mementoes and relationships from the social and possibly academic circle of a noble or scholarly family in the late 18th century. Technique and composition At the heart of the collection are 126 cut-out silhouette portraits in the small profile format characteristic of the genre, measuring approximately 4 x 3.5 to 10 x 7 cm, most of which are labelled by hand with the name of the person depicted – a practice typical of scrapbooks of this kind and crucial for the identification of the subjects today. The series of cut-out portraits is complemented by a deliberately diverse range of other pictorial techniques: two ink drawings, four drawings, eight mezzotint prints, two colour engravings and fourteen copperplate engravings. This mixture of cut, drawn and printed portraits is characteristic of albums that have grown over the years, in which self-made portraits from within the family and circle of friends were combined with purchased or gifted prints. Album of silhouettes containing 126 cut portraits, together with portraits in ink (2), drawings (4), mezzotint plates (8), colour engravings (2) and copper engravings (14). Mounted on 69 leaves. The cut portraits (mostly inscribed by hand) measure approx. 4 x 3.5 to 10 x 7 cm. In a contemporary board binding (heavily rubbed, spine with losses, some leaves loose). Oblong large octavo. Late 18th century. Among those depicted: Lavater, Crusius, Wittgenstein, Spangenberg, Schulenburg, Countess Reuß, Hardenberg, Wollin, Lykar, Schoenberg, Feder, Hohenthal, Vitzum, Lippe, Count Brühl, Lykar, and many others. The album was created during the heyday of the silhouette craze, a phenomenon inextricably linked to the name of Johann Caspar Lavater (1741–1801). With his *Physiognomische Fragmente zur Beförderung der Menschenkenntniß und Menschenliebe* (*Physiognomical Fragments for the Promotion of Knowledge and Love of Mankind*), published in four volumes between 1775 and 1778, the Zurich theologian made the silhouette – the precisely contoured, side-profile depiction of a face – the central medium of a new, pseudo-scientific interpretative practice: the silhouette was regarded as an ‘immediate imprint of nature’ and thus as an objective instrument for investigating human character. Lavater’s own collection of physiognomic silhouettes grew to more than 22,000 sheets and is now housed in the Austrian National Library. The enormous popularity of his work, to which Goethe, Merck, Chodowiecki and Füssli, amongst others, contributed, meant that the art of the silhouette rapidly evolved from a physiognomic method of study into a widespread social practice of commemorative portraiture. The fact that Lavater himself appears amongst the subjects in this album points directly to the collection’s intellectual and historical origins. Silhouette and shadow-profile albums of this kind were, in the late eighteenth century, an integral part of the culture of friendship and remembrance, particularly within academic and courtly circles: students, scholars and members of the nobility compiled collections of profile portraits of their acquaintances, teachers and peers during their years of study or travel – comparable to the well-known friendship album compiled around 1784–1786 in Göttingen by the Hungarian nobleman Gregorius Franz von Berzeviczy. The names featured in this album – Schulenburg, Countess Reuß, Hardenberg, Hohenthal, Vitzum (von Eckstädt), and Count Brühl – all belong to the Central German, predominantly Saxon-Thuringian high nobility, and suggest a similar context of origin: a personal album of remembrance and social connections from the circle – possibly academic – of a noble or scholarly family in the late eighteenth century. Technique and Composition The core of the collection consists of 126 cut-out silhouette portraits in the small profile format characteristic of the genre, measuring approximately 4 x 3.5 to 10 x 7 cm, mostly inscribed by a contemporary hand with the name of the sitter – a practice typical of collectors’ albums of this kind and crucial to the present-day identification of those portrayed. This series of cut-out portraits is supplemented by a deliberately diverse range of other portrait techniques: two ink drawings, four drawings, eight mezzotint plates, two colour engravings, and fourteen copper engravings. This mixture of cut, drawn and printed portraits is characteristic of collectors’ albums assembled gradually over the years, in which works produced within the family and circle of friends were combined with purchased or gifted portrait prints.
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About the sale Valuable books, prints, historical photographs
Auction location
Auction time 10/24/2026 at 10:00 AM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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