Monday, November 8, 2010

Lion Cachet - Album Thijs Maris (1900)

C.A. Lion Cachet produced this folio map, which can be seen as a counterpart to the Rembrandt map of the same format. The huge size gave possibilities for an almost cloud like tree or foliage motive held in more solid coloured corners. In its decorative and repeating style it is still reminiscent of traditional batik but in a very individual take that is entirely original. Other details show more distinctively the time of its making, like the gilt type in the centre crafted in the fashionable vein of fonts around 1900.

A very well reproduced cover can be found here

Dutch antiquarian bookseller Fokas Holthuis sells this book with the following description:

Album Thijs Maris. [Haarlem, Kleinmann, 1900]. Original gilt and batiked vellum.(8) p. + 18 lvs. w. laid-down helio-engravings after work of Thijs Maris. [Printed in an edition of 75 copies]. (...) in astonishing condition. € 2500 (they earlier sold a mediocre copy for 150 €, so condition is really important for this book) Newprice of the book was 80 guilders, comparable to some € 950 today.

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