Alfred Cossmann Vienna Secession Beethoven Ex Libris Bookplate for Caroline Freifrau von Dalberg

Vienna Secession Ex Libris Bookplates 1900–1925

This bookplate forms part of a wonderful collection of ex libris relating to the Vienna Secession and Hungarian Secession. Dating from around 1900 to 1925—the heyday of bookplate production and collecting—they showcase a fabulous array of Art Nouveau designs, incorporating popular motifs such as sensuous naked bodies, frolicking nymphs, and organic fronds and foliage, along with Art Deco sunbeams and flattened blocks of colour. The collection includes designs by some of the leading graphic artists associated with the Secession movements in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the early 20th century. These designers were at the cutting edge of European Modernism, rejecting the Academic, historical styles of the establishment, and advocating a 'total art', that unified painting, architecture and the decorative arts.

Austrian artists in the collection include Emil Orlik (1870–1932), Franz von Bayros (1866–1924) and Erhard Amadeus-Dier (1893–1969). Emil Orlik studied alongside Paul Klee and was a friend of Franz Kafka and Rainer Maria Rilke. Franz von Bayros was an Austrian commercial artist, illustrator and painter, who belonged to the fin de siècle Decadent movement. Erhard Amadeus-Dier studied at the Vienna School of Applied Arts and at the Vienna Academy. He worked as a porcelain designer as well as a graphic artist.

Hungarian artists in the collection include Josef von Diveky (1887–1951) and Attila Sassy (1880–1967). Josef von Diveky became renowned for his graphic work showing the influence of Aubrey Beardsley. Attila Sassy, known under the pseudonym Aiglon, was one of the leading artists of the important Hungarian artists' colony at Nagybánya.

By their nature, bookplates create a link between the artist and the book collector for whom the plate is designed. There are many fascinating owners in the collection: from the eminent German artist Hans Thoma (1839–1924), to figures associated with the Vienna Secession, such as the photographer and gallerist Emma Bacher (1868–1953), who was a friend of Gustav Klimt.