About the cover:
Full-grain binding Red oasis goatskin, hand-gilt scrollwork with grapes symmetrically mirrored on both covers, gilt spine title, gilt head edge, hand-stitched capital, gilt inner edges, endpapers in French marbled paper, hinged case covered with raw cloth, gilt spine title on leather label.
About the content:
Carl Schauwecker: Late Harvest
Cover drawing and frontispiece are original lithographs by Rolf Dürig,
Privately published in 1959 in 800 copies by Max Affolter, Designed by Max Caflisch as a French brochure. Second collection of poems by Schauwecker.
About the artist: Max Koelliker, born in Basel in 1910, passed his master craftsman's examination in 1937 and opened his own bookbindery at St. Johannvorstatt 44 in 1943. He had a good and strong support in his wife. He was known as a good teacher, including Sepp Rudin. He loved hand gilding and demanding bookbinding work much more than so-called ‘normal’ work. Many of his master bindings were commissioned by Hans Grether, a patron of the Basel ‘Daig’ and owner of Pharmafirma Dötsch Grether AG. Koelliker was a sociable man. He had a good relationship with Ignatz Wiemeler, the renowned cover artist from Hamburg. He lost both his first and, a few years later, his second wife at an early age. Max Koelliker himself died in old age as a demented recluse.
