About the cover:

Full-grain binding Dark red, smoothed oasis goat binding with gilt spine title below the centre, as well as the hand-gilt five-pointed star shape on the front cover, offset to the right and composed of an ornamental stamp, three-sided yellow coloured edges, leather spine, gilt standing edges, marble paper endpapers, slipcase with leather-lined opening and ochre-coloured Ingres cover.

Handwritten dedication by Thorvald Henningsen to Albert Burkhardt on his birthday on 9 May 1959.

About the content:

Georg Schmidt: A brief history of modern painting with 10 colour reproductions from Daumier to Chagall.

Published by Friedrich Reinhardt AG, Basel 1958

This highly acclaimed work is often used as an introduction to modern art. It contains ten radio lectures by Georg Schmidt, then director of the Basel Art Museum. Step by step and easy to understand, he uses the ten reproductions to open the door to understanding and enjoying modern painting.

About the artist: Thorvald Henningsen was born in Lausanne in 1896 and completed his bookbinding apprenticeship with Konrad Häsler in Zurich from 1910 to 1914. He gained a wide range of professional experience at various workplaces in Switzerland. After qualifying as a master craftsman in 1921, he was the manager of the Schumacher bookbindery in Bern. In 1946, he took over a bookbinding workshop at Napfgasse 4 in Zurich's old town, directly above Café Schober. The years leading up to the sale of his workshop in 1972 were intense: in addition to managing his soon very renowned workshop, he taught at the arts and crafts schools in Zurich and Bern, gave evening classes for bookbinders and preparatory courses for the master craftsman's examination. He was on the board of the Cantonal Zurich Master Bookbinder Association and the Museum of Bookbinding, as well as being involved in promotional films and trade exhibitions. He became known beyond Switzerland as the author of specialist books and articles.