[MEDICINE - HEALTHY BEVERAGES]. Der Menschen Zung und Gurgel Weid, Zur Notturfft und Ergözlichkeit vorgestellt durch die unterschiedliche Arten der Geträncke

Augsburg: Martin Engelbrecht, 1720. Folio (372 x 217 mm). Engraved title (ONLY) from a suite of 12 engravings. Inner margin strengthened. LIQUID MEDICAMENTS, being the sensational engraved title-page (only) from "The Feast of Man's Tongue and Throat, Presented for Necessity and Delight through the Different Kinds of Drinks," a justly famous and "impossibly rare" suite of 12 Baroque engravings which describe and illustrate imbibing in "healthy" beverages through every stage of life, literally from the cradle to the grave.

This first plate contains the title followed by a fourteen-line poem describing the forthcoming content, is set in "grotesque" scroll-like frame displaying drinking glasses, goblets, flasks, cups, tankards and bottles. A portion of the poem (loosely translated) reads: "The human tongue and throat are provided for necessity and enjoyment through various kinds of drinks. Milk is your first drink. You'll soon get beer. Sometimes you'll taste wine. And you'll gargle coffee and tea, drink lemonade and strong brandy. But when you have consumed many such drinks, the flood of death will finally come upon you."

Although none of the plates in the series (including this one) were signed, they are ascribed to Martin Engelbrecht (1684-1756), one of the most prolific engravers and art publishers in 18th century Germany. His career starts with an apprenticeship with the Augsburg engraver Gabriel Ehinger. In 1708 he works in Berlin and then in Vienna and 1711 he enters the shop of his brother Christian as a partner. In 1719, finally, he establishes his own company provided with an imperial privilege, protecting him against fraudulent reprints. In his lifetime he produces a corpus totaling over three thousand engravings, specializing in achitecture and ornaments as well as in the allegorical and the grotesque, like the then very fashionable dwarf suites.

CENSUS: We can trace only 2 other complete copies worldwide: one in the Lipperheide Collection in the Kunstbibliothek Berlin (within a Sammelband which is not properly inventoried yet), and a second one in the Arents Tobacco collection NYPL. Additionally, two incomplete copies are held by the Göttweig Abbey (Austria) and the Germanische Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg. The copy in the Faber du Faur Collection (Beinecke Library) contains the title page ONLY, bound in a set of Engelbrecht's "Twelve Months" series by Callotto.

REFERENCES: Schott, Martin Engelbrecht, 3179-87 (incomplete description, omitting plates 10-12); Brooks, Arents III, 540-A. Knoll, "Der Augsburger Verleger M. Engelbrecht. Studien zur Produktion und Vertrieb von illustrierten Einblattdrucken des 18. Jhs." (Master's thesis), Augsburg, 1990, pp. 63-111.