About the cover:

Full-grain binding Red-orange maroquin French binding with smooth spine and hand-gilt title, on both covers in a slightly recessed square a gilt line turned through 180 degrees and a composition of scrolls over three light grey, horizontal, frayed, sharpened leather edges, graphite cut on three sides, hand-stitched endpapers, grey laid paper endpapers, slipcase with leather-bound opening covered with grey laid paper.

About the content:

Pierre de Ronsard: Sonnets

With 23 original etchings by André Dunoyer de Segonzac

Ex. No. 24 of 3050

Éditions ‘Les Peintres du Livre’, Paris 1969 The sonnet is a form of poetry consisting of 14 lines of verse, divided into 4 sections. The sonnets are the best known and probably also the best work of the French poet Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585).

About the artist: Thorvald Henningsen was born in Lausanne in 1896 and served his bookbinding apprenticeship with Konrad Hänsler in Zurich from 1910 to 1914. He gained a wide range of professional experience at various workplaces in Switzerland. After receiving his master’s certificate in 1921, he managed 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 following years, he was very active until selling his workshop in 1972: in addition to managing his soon highly renowned workshop, he taught at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich and in Bern and gave evening classes for bookbinders as well as preparatory courses for the master’s certificate examination. He was on the board of the Association Kantonal-Zürcher Buchbindermeister-Verein 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.