Slange,N. Lot n° 79

Den Stormaegtigste Konges Christian den Fierdes Kongel til Danmarck og Norge, de Venders og Gothers, Hertugs til Slesvig, Holsten, Stormarn og Ditmersken, Greves til Oldneborg og Delmenhorst, Historie . Men ester Kongel. Allernaadigst Befaling igiennemseet og af Archiv-Documenter forbedret af Hans Gram. Copenhagen, Königliche Buchdruckerei, 1749. gr.fol. Engraved frontispiece, title, 1 leaf, 10 pp., 1 engraved portrait, 1536 pp. (incorrectly numbered 1534; last page unnumbered, p. 968 numbered twice). Wonderful red marocco binding of the period on seven bands with rich floral and ornamental gilt spine and cover, gilt-stamped standing edges, inner edge borders, endpapers covered with intricate marbled paper, gilt edges. (Slightly rubbed and bumped; small losses at the joints). Edition of the monumental biography of King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway (1577-1648) edited by Peter Fogh. The title portrait shows the state councillor and court historiographer Niels Slange, the portrait at the beginning of the text shows the monarch; both are engraved by Fritzsch, the first after a model by Denner from 1718, the second after a model by Carl van Manter. Wonderful contemporary red marocco binding; intricate ribbonwork is combined with floral ornamentation, with additional vases and individual flowers on the covers. At least five copies of this work are known with the same binding: a copy in the Library of Congress, which was shown in the famous exhibition at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore in 1957 (cf. Miners, no. 488, pl. 88), a copy in the Wormsley Library, two copies in the Sotheby's catalog "Six Centuries of Bookbindings", 7. XI.2002, nos. 143 and 181, as well as the present one. It is assumed that these bindings were created by employees of the Danish master bookbinder Niels Anthon in Copenhagen as "demonstration pieces". Apparently the copies were bound over a longer period of time; I suspect that the present copy was bound rather late. Traces of dampness now and then throughout the volume, some foxing throughout, but overall a good, clean copy. - Danish master binding.