Fine editions of Holbein and Dürer

Is anyone aware of any fine editions of Hans Holbein’s Dance of Death, or of Albrecht Dürer’s Apocalypse and Meisterstiche?

I’ve found several copies of Dance of Death on Abe, published by the Sylvan Press in 1947. They seem to sell for around the £100-£150 mark, but I can find no information on the publisher.

Thanks in advance.

>1 SyllicSpell:

I'd try Taschen? I also have an older Folio Society Durer in storage somewhere. Pretty decent reproductions.

Only other fine press Durer engravings I know of are in the Allen Press Terence, but those were engravings made especially for that play (The Brothers).

You might want to check out Totentanz by the Insel-Verlag. I don't own a copy myself but this one looks rather nice:

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=9677964566&searchurl=kn%...

https://www.booklooker.de/Bücher/Hans-Holbein-der-Jüngere+Bilder-des-Todes/id/...

The 1913 printing had an edition of 800 copies should be fine press.

>1 SyllicSpell: The Dance of Death exists in many fine-press versions, the Chiswick Press for instance.

For the Apocalypse, an english fine printer in the 60's, Eugrammia press, did a nice edition, full size, good paper, well printed, nicely bound. They also produced a facsimile of another Apocalypse series by a contemporary artist of Durer which I find at least as interesting, Jean Duvet's L'apocalypse figuree (it's also usually a better price). Eugrammia produced a good facsimile of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili as well. I happen to have facsimiles of all volumes, but I think my favourite is the volume of Jean Duvet's illustrations.

CM Editores made this facsimile:

https://www.facsimilefinder.com/facsimiles/apocalypse-with-pictures-by-albrecht-...

At a lower price point, you can get this recent edition:

https://www.wbg-wissenverbindet.de/shop/30745/albrecht-duerer.-drei-grosse-buech...

In 2009 Prestel Publisher produced a limited edition of the Apocalypse and Life of Mary:

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30939776976&searchurl=x%3D...

If I remember correctly, they made metal plates to print the single sheets in letterpress style.

>5 Stephan68: "In 2009 Prestel Publisher produced a limited edition of the Apocalypse and Life of Mary"

Does this include an English translation?

>6 ultrarightist: According to booklooker.de it contains a bilingual essay (German and English) by the art historian Ludwig Grote, but no English translation of the Apocalypse itself.

>4 erodoto: Thank you for bringing my attention to the Eugrammia Press edition. It looks to be exactly what I was after. Learning about the Jean Duvet is an especially nice bonus.

> I have the Marienleben cycle (life of the virgin Mary). It doesn’t include an English translation.

>4 erodoto: I have an oportunity to get an affordable copy of Eugrammia's Hypnerotomachia. How's the paper? And what's your overall opinion about this book? Thank you!

While at the Manhattan FPBA show this past spring I caught the Holbein exhibit at the Morgan, incredible. It was a slow day so I was able to take pics of the entire exhibit of both the Dance of Death and Images of Death. Really good pics, suitable to generate new plates from. They've been an inspiration to me as a printmaker for decades.

Seems like a new release of these may be in order in the future. Any suggestions for an accompanying short text or essay?

>10 DWPress: well that would probably be an instant order from me.

Regarding accompanying text, one thought I had was Montaigne's essay That to Study Philosophy is to Learn to Die.

I recalled that Yourcenar might have written something on Holbein in her earlier art criticism essays, but I'm not finding it at the moment so that might be a faulty memory. I'll check a few of my other favorite essayists to see if anything else relevant comes up.

>11 abysswalker: Much appreciated!

It would be a fun and relatively quick book compared to recent projects.

Anyone familiar with Martin Schongauer? Do you own/know any notable fine press or quality editions with his works?

>13 Lukas1990:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/255486882881?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19...

>1 SyllicSpell: Sylvan Press put out some really well produced books back in the day. If memory serves me correctly, at least some were printed by highly regarded printers such as Curwen Press and Joh. Enschede en Zonen. I certainly know that some Sylvan publications were high quality limited editions, but also know that some were just run-of-the-mill trade books. I'm intrigued myself to see what they would have done for Holbein and who would have printed it. I shall go digging in a bit to see if I can find out!

UPDATE: Went digging and all I could find out it that the edition was printed in the United States, but printer unspecified. Don't you just hate vague information in books!!

>14 dlphcoracl: Yeah, that is one of the few fine press editions that I was able to find. In Dürer's shadow...