About the cover:

Leather binding, attached covers Light brown oasis goatskin spine, attached covers covered with red-brown oasis goatskin, each cover is divided by two vertical, slightly recessed ornaments made of multicoloured oasis goatskin leather overlays in a blind-stamped, wavy surface, yellow coloured edges on three sides, leather endpapers, endpapers made of laid paper throughout, hinged case covered with beige madras fabric, lined with red-brown suede, recessed ornamental form on front cover.

About the content:

Sketchbook Thorvald Henningsen designed and produced this cover as a gift for his friend Albert Burkhardt on his 65th birthday. He died shortly after sending the package with the cover to the post office on 31 May 1977.

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.