Elfenbein. – Preiss und Kassler, Lot n° 69

Ivory. -Preiss und Kassler, Berlin. 58 sample sheets of an illustrated company catalogue, including 2 original photographs, c. 1925-30. The sheets with model numbers, mostly size details. 17:24,5 cm. Perforated stitching, original brochure detached, binding string lost. The models of the ivory carving workshop founded in 1906 (artistic director Ferdinand Preiss, 1882-1943, from Erbach/Odenwald) as contributions to the worldwide popular cabinet sculpture of the twenties, made of the popular material combination bronze/ivory. Some of the models were shown by Preiss and Kassler at the Leipzig Sample Fair in 1930, see H.-W. Hegemann, Kat. Europ. ivory art from Fin de Siècle to Art Déco, Erbach 1978, fig. 27 - The cover of the present model booklet with imprint: The Property of Phillips & MacConnal, Gallery of Arts, 16, Conduit Street, London W 1. Hegemann as above, unpag.: "The English were particularly receptive to this kind of small sculptures, so that a large part of the production of Preiss and Kassler was exported to Great Britain". The selling prices at that time inscribed by hand with English notes. - A collection of the sample sheets, which were probably published in loose succession in former times, could not be proven to this extent until now. Only a few sample sheets are known, reproduced to a small extent in B. Catley, Art Déco and other Figures, Woodbridge 1978, without reference to the source and partly from photocopies (possibly from the original documents available here).