Lot 40: BECKER, Rudolf Zacharias (1752-1822). Holzschnitte alter deutscher Meister in den Originalplatten gesammelt von Hans Albrecht von Derschau . Gotha: published by the author, 1808-1816. 3 volumes, 2° (585 x 435mm). 213 plates comprising

BECKER, Rudolf Zacharias (1752-1822). Holzschnitte alter deutscher Meister in den Originalplatten gesammelt von Hans Albrecht von Derschau. Gotha: published by the author, 1808-1816.

3 volumes, 2° (585 x 435mm). 213 plates comprising approximately 510 individual woodcuts, some mounted or folding, including works by Anonymous Masters of the 15th and 16th century, Albrecht Altdorfer, Jost Amman, Hans Sebald Beham, Hans Brosamer, Hans Burgkmair, Lucas Cranach, Albrecht Dürer, Peter Flötner, Ludwig Frig, Hans Schäufelein, Erhard Schön, Hans Springinklee, Virgil Solis and others, all printed from the original blocks with manuscript captions in the mount of the tipped in plates. (Occasional finger-soiling and browning.) Original printed blue paper boards (extremities rubbed, small chips at spines, a few small dampstains).

RARE COLLECTION OF OLD-MASTER WOODCUTS, PRINTED FROM THE ORIGINAL BLOCK. The prints represent a remarkable survival and discovery of the original woodblocks of some of the greatest masters of the 15th and 16th centuries: Dürer, Cranach, Beham, Burgkmair and others. The blocks were found by Albrecht von Derschau in a private household in Nuremberg in a trunk left by Dürer's friend and mentor, Willibald Pirckheimer. Derschau recognised the importance of his find and decided to collect printing blocks from other sources too. The result is an invaluable record of early woodcut printing, including many unobtainable rarities or even previously unrecorded works, which are only known to us today through Derschau's reprints. The volumes themselves are rare, with no copy in the Victoria and Albert, British Museum or British Library, for example, and no copy recorded in ABPC on-line. (3)