[Scheffel's] Ekkehard

New York: Stroefer & Kirchner, 1875. First Edition. First Edition. Small portfolio of 12 photographically illustrated cards (4 1/2 x 6 3/4 inches) depicting original artwork, the whole enclosed in a thin red cloth portfolio with three flaps. Portfolio cloth and flap folds repaired. The front and rear of the portfolio are blind stamped, the front also in gilt. Marked with a stamp "F. Bonnet" "St. Louis, MO." on inside flap. Each of the cards has red satining at the very edges all around. Each card has amounted photograph (woodburytype?) roughly 3 1/2 x 5 inches with some variations in size. On each card there is a thin printed double box, above which (truncated) is printed "SCHEFFEL's EKKEHARD" and below "Stroefer & Kirchner, New York" Inside the border is the title of the image, sometimes with attributions of artists. These images illustrate scenes from "Ekkehard. A tale of the tenth century," Joseph Victor von Scheffel's famous historical romance. (1857, translated into English in 1872). Each card is numbered (1-12) and each identifies the artist. The cards are: 1. Ekkehard Carrying Hadwig Over the Cloister-Sill (A. Liezen-Mayer), 2. Rudimann and Kerhildis (E. Grutzner), 3. Ekkehard and Praxedis (F. Wagner), 4. Reading Virgil (J. Herterich), 5. Audifax and Hadumoth (F. Fluggen), 6. Battle with the Huns (W. Diez),7. Hadumoth Praying (G. max), 8. Hadwig and the Covent-Scholar (J. Fluggen), 9. Relating Heroic Legend (C. Schraudelph), 10. Hadwig and Ekkehard (A. Liezen-Mayer), 11. Ekkehard's Flight (J. Benczur), and 12. Ekkehard's Farewell (A. Liezen Mayer).

Joseph Victor von Scheffel (b1826 - d1886) was a German poet and novelist.

The firm Stroefer & Kirchner did this sort of work regularly in the 1870s. However, we cannot find this example (or indeed anything Stroefer & Kirchner did related to Ekkehard) in OCLC as of this writing. We did find a German language edition done by another publisher (Friedrich Bruckmann) with similar portfolio design and 16 images. Scarce. (Inventory #: 27480)