Tannhäuser : a dramatic poem / by Richard Wagner; freely translated in poetic narrative form by T.W. Rolleston; presented by Willy Pogány.
Richard Wagner (1813 - 1883)
Category
Books
Date
1911
Materials
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 3101606
Summary
Richard Wagner, tr. T.W. Rolleston, Tannhaüser: A Dramatic Poem … Presented by Willy Pogàny. London: G.G. Harrap, [1911] Binding: Twentieth-century full red morocco over boards; elaborately gilt sides, with inlaid green morocco border, gilt tooling and fillets for form outer and inner borders and a central panel with leaf, floral and heart motifs on upper board; gilt-panelled lower board; gilt-panelled spine with rose tools; gilt-tooled spine title: 'Tannhäuser a dramatic poem'; sewn onto five raised bands; green morocco and gilt tooling inside covers; gilt fillet on board edges; gilt textblock edges.
Full description
After several decades of struggle against poverty, indifferent audiences and European politics, the composer Richard Wagner finally came into his own in the 1860s, when the new king of Bavaria, Ludwig II, threw him the lifeline he needed. With Ludwig's patronage, Wagner's career blossomed; his operas were performed, his theatre at Bayreuth was built, and by the time he died in 1883 he was something of an international celebrity. In the decades following his death, the Wagner industry continued to expand, with numerous publications devoted to his life and works, including specially illustrated editions of his operatic texts, by leading book artists of the time. Arthur Rackham's series of pictures for Wagner's Ring Cycle is well known; another illustrator who used Wagner depictions to help to make his name was Willy Pogàny (1882-1955), who was born in Hungary and studied in Munich and Paris before coming to London shortly before the First World War. His Art-Nouveau-style illustrated versions of three Wagner operas, Tannhaüser, Parsifal and Lohengrin, published in London between 1911 and 1913, together with a 1910 version of Coleridge's poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, are often described as his masterpieces. He left England for the USA shortly afterwards and had a successful career as an illustrator for books and magazines and a Hollywood set designer. Anglesey Abbey Library has copies of Tannhaüser and Lohengrin, each luxuriously bound. Tannhaüser is in red morocco with an onlaid green border; the covers are gilt-tooled all over with a pattern based on floral and foliage designs, reminiscent of the kind of work inspired by Arts and Crafts bookbinder Thomas Cobden-Sanderson. The binding is signed 'Bumpus Ltd, Oxford Street', but were probably the work of one of the major London West End binderies, or possibly Bayntun's of Bath. The Bumpus firm, founded in Clerkenwell around 1790 by Thomas Bumpus (1754-1832), flourished during the nineteenth century as booksellers and publishers, moving first to Holborn and then to Oxford Street, where by the turn of the twentieth century it had become one of the pre-eminent London booksellers, which regularly commissioned binding work from a range of leading contemporary workshops. Text adapted from David Pearson's entry in 'Treasures from Lord Fairhaven's Library at Anglesey Abbey', 2013, cat. 43, pp. 134-5.
Bibliographic description
[224] p. : ill. (some col.) ; 8vo. Copy number 522 added to note of limited edition. Provenance: Twentieth-century armorial bookplate, signed G.S. 1924: ‘Urban Huttleston Rogers Broughton’ [i.e.: Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966)]. Binding: Twentieth-century full red morocco over boards; elaborately gilt sides, with inlaid green morocco border, gilt tooling and fillets for form outer and inner borders and a central panel with leaf, floral and heart motifs on upper board; gilt-panelled lower board; gilt-panelled spine with rose tools; gilt-tooled spine title: 'Tannhäuser a dramatic poem'; sewn onto five raised bands; green morocco and gilt tooling inside covers; gilt fillet on board edges; gilt textblock edges. Binder's stamp: Bumpus Ltd. 350 Oxford St W.
Provenance
Acquired by Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966) and then bequeathed by him to the National Trust with the house and the rest of the contents in 1966.
Makers and roles
Richard Wagner (1813 - 1883), author Willy Pogány (1882-1955), illustrator Thomas William Hazen Rolleston (1857-1920), translator