Curioser Spiegel, worinnen der ganze Lebenslauf des Menschen von der Kindheit bis zum Alter zu sehen, in Figuren, mit beygefugten ganz neuen kurzen Erklarungen vorgestellt

Nurnberg: Verlag der Johann Andreas Endter. Endterischen Handlung, 1824. Neue Auflage. Half Cloth. Marbled Boards. Custom Cloth Box to house book. Tall folio, 34 by 21 cm. Title, followed by 41 hand-colored plates. This work was originally published in 1689, and there was also an 1812 printing. This copy used the original woodcut plates, and the hand-coloring palette and style is consistent with that of the seventeenth century, lending an antiquarian authenticity to the edition. They are woodcuts by Elias Porzelius, mostly after designs by Susanne Maria Sandrart (1658-1716), the relatively rare known female artist of the time. The plates depict all the (truncated) stages of life, from birth to death, and many depicting the various professions, including tailor, cobbler, baker, butcher, paper maker, bookbinder, cartwright or barrel-maker, dyer, weaver, stonecutter, coachmaker, house painter, saddler, locksmith, , blacksmith, carpenter, clown, etc. Particularly charming are the plates of acrobats and a sleigh procession. None of the illustrations are static -- they depict activity, and a sense of movement and things happening applies to every plate. Not infrequently there is even activity in the background. This applies to the several plates that cover a soldier's life, including an army on the move or at an encampment when soldiers in the foreground are playing dice and others farther back are kibitzing. Some of the illustrations have touches of humor, and they all are suffused with humanity and a Rococo gracefulness in their composition and movement. The hand-coloring has a certain courseness, as actually is period appropriate to coloring of the seventeenth century in this kind of book. Pictorial label on front, laid onto marbled boards, with title of "Bilderbuch fur Kinder". Light wear to binding. Modern cloth box. An overall beautiful children's book that should speak to any antiquarian. (Inventory #: 004052)