Search Results: the dance of death by wenceslaus hollar

London, Printed by C. Whittingham, sold by John Harding, 1804.. Small 4to.72pp. 33 inserted engraved plates including two portraits (Holbein and Hollar) and a folding plate to accompany "Dance of Macaber' at rear. Original pale blue papered boards, recently re-cased and re-backed with (rather amateurish) label. Some internal foxing, the Holbein engravings less affected. Some marginal loss to last two text leaves. Overall, a very good copy. . Scarce and important.

London: Printed By C.Whittingham For John Harding, 1804. Third State of the Hollar etchings according to Pennington with some reworking and numbers added. Hollar originally published his etchings in 1651 at Antwerp with elaborate symbolic borders designed by Abraham a Diepenbecke. The introduction and description of the plates are by Francis Douce. Appended is the introduction to John Lydgate's Dance of Macaber, pp. [65]-70. Rosenwald 1955. Pennington 233-266. 8vo. pp. 70. with half-title. 2 etched portraits, & 31 etched plates (1 folding). 19th century half calf (rubbed, some light foxing to plates - frontis. portrait more heavily affected). elala5507

London: Printed for J. Coxhead, 1816. Very good plus.. Regency-era edition of these richly hand-colored engravings by one of the finest imitators of Holbein, in a handsome contemporary binding. Holbein's Dance of Death, designed in the 1520s and first printed from Lutzelberger's woodblocks in 1538, enjoyed decades of sustained popularity among the morbid Protestants of northern Europe, with the theme's popularity only increasing as waves of imitators produced their own editions and copies. Hollar (1607-1677) produced a particularly skillful version; his series of 30 etchings was initially published in 1651 with decorative borders by Abraham Diepenbeeck; the editions of 1780 and following were printed without the borders and with explanatory text. This London edition of 1816 issued the plates in a fourth state, reworked "with the utmost attention to the preservation of their original spirit and character" (Douce) and exquisitely colored by hand. With a Life of Holbein, two essays, and descriptive… Read More

A very scarce, hand-coloured edition of Wenceslaus Hollar's Dance of Death.With 33 plates engraved by Hollar, comprising 31 hand-coloured engravings of the Dance of Death, one hand-coloured engraving of the Dance of Macaber, and two engraved portraits (of Hollar and Holbein).According to the exhaustive Dance of Death website dodedans.com, Hollar's engravings are based primarily on Arnold Birckmann's copies of Holbein's woodcuts. Most of the plates have the initials HB (Holbein) and WH (Hollar), apart from the frontispiece, Mortalitum Nobilitas, which is engraved with HB and DD (David Deuchar?).
Hollar's suite of engravings was first published in 1651 and the copperplates "which appear to have been little used, have been till lately preserved in a noble family" according to Francis Douce's introduction. The original plates have been "retouched, ... with the utmost attention to the preservation of their original spirit and character." English antiquary and curator at the British Museum, Douce would… Read More