MICKIEWICZ ADAM, KONRAD WALLENROD AND GRAŻYNA [1851].

Description

The most frequently typified book for the title of the most beautiful Polish printing of the Romantic era, by the way the most beautiful illustrated edition of the works of Adam Mickiewicz. Impressive for the quantity and quality of full-page engravings on plates and smaller ones in the text – “the most beautiful part of the book’s illustrations are the initials, drawn against the background of small details of architecture or views of localities. Equally beautiful are the vignettes with accessories of armor and weapons, and finally small views of Lithuanian and Prussian cities, edifices, ruins and castle interiors” (Semkowicz, Editions of the Works of Adam Mickiewicz over the Century) – contains 100 woodcuts, 22 of them on separate plates. Drawn by J. Tysiewicz, engraved by Budziłłowicz, Kraskowski, Stypułkowski and French woodcutters.

A complete copy – with a preserved set of 23 illustration plates. The iconographic integrity significantly contributes to the collector’s value. Preserved original booklet covers – an element rarely maintained in circulating copies of this era – with traces of underlinings. Minor soiling of boards and discoloration of protective tissue guards, traces of repairs to two tissue guards and one board.

Parisian editions of Mickiewicz from the mid-19th century represent a stable segment of the investment literature market. The author’s prominence in the canon of European Romanticism and the preservation of the original publishing elements make the copy an object of distinct collector rank.