The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 27, July 8, 2007, Article 16

LEN AUGSBURGER ON CHRISTIAN GOBRECHT'S WOODCUTS

[With permission I'm reprinting from the July 2007 issue of The
E-Gobrecht (Volume 3, Issue 7, Whole Number 28) the following article
on "Christian Gobrecht's woodcuts" by Len Augsburger.  See the
original article for illustrations. -Editor]

I recently purchased, via abebooks.com, an old volume that contains
woodcuts executed by Christian Gobrecht while he lived in Baltimore.
"A Key to French Conversation and French Idiom," published by Warner
& Hanna in Baltimore in 1812, is a primer to the French language,
with numerous woodcuts illustrating the text. Many are unsigned, but
probably most are the work of Gobrecht. The engraver cleverly hid
his signature within the base of the cuts, some indicating "G",
others "Gobrecht". Three of these images were rendered in the Hanover
Numismatic Society series of medals from 1966-1981 honoring Christian
Gobrecht and are illustrated here, scanned from the 1812 volume.

Some of these woodcuts apparently originated in an earlier volume,
"The Baltimore Spelling Book : Containing Easy Lessons in Spelling
& Reading, Ornamented with Elegant Cuts", this also published by Warner
& Hanna in Baltimore, and thought to have been published in 1811. This
volume was referenced at the Maryland Historical Society. Warner and
Hanna published anumber of other books, and it is quite possible that
Gobrecht woodcuts could be located in these as well."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization 
promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor 
at this address: whomren@coinlibrary.com

To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum